Point of law: An application for the renewal for a prospecting licence shall be disposed of by the State Government before the expiry of the period of prospecting licence and if the application is not disposed of within that period, the licence shall be deemed to have been renewed for a period not exceeding the period for renewal of prospecting licence under sub-section (2) of section 7 of the Act, or the period for which an application is made, whichever is less

ORDER :

1. This Writ Petition is filed to declare the Memo dated 01.06.2017 of the first respondent, permitting the Director of Mines and Geology to issue notification for conducting e-auction for granting mining lease in respect of Lime Stone blocks, consequential notice dated 17.07.2017 issued by the Director of Mines and Geology inviting tenders and the Memo of the first respondent dated 30.10.2017 deciding to issue letter of intent in favour of the fourth respondent, as arbitrary and illegal.

2. Heard learned counsel for the petitioner Sri T. Sreedhar, learned Advocate-General appearing for respondents 1 to 3 and Sri Sivaraju Srinivas, learned counsel appearing for the fourth respondent.

3. The case of the petitioner Firm is that it was granted prospecting license for Limestone mineral over an extent of 288.87 Acres in USHB Yerragudi village in Survey No.20 of Hussainapuram village and in Survey No.340 of Yennakandla village, vide G.O.Ms.No.169, Industries and Commerce (M.III) Department dated 25.02.2000, for two years and the Assistant Director of Mines and Geology, Kurnool has permitted the petitioner to do prospecting over the granted area for two years from 28.04.2000 to 27.04.2002 and accordingly prospecting license was executed; petitioner sought for renewal of the said prospecting license, vide letter dated 15.01.2002 and the same was processed in 2008 and survey was done by the Department of Mines and Geology on 25.06.2008 and the renewal was recommended; thereafter, petitioner has been conducting prospecting operations and the petitioner applied for mining lease in accordance with the Mineral Concession Rules, 1960 on 21.05.2008 and submitted the prospecting report on 05.06.2008; when the petitioner noticed that the prospecting operations were done for more area of 387.52 Acres, it requested vide letter dated 16.04.2011 to consider grant of mining lease for 387.52 Acres; the said requisition was processed by the Zonal Joint Director of Mines and Geology, Kadapa on 21.06.2011 and the Director of Mines and Geology also addressed a letter dated 23.04.2012 to the petitioner seeking clarification on seven points regarding the interests of Abhijeet Cements Limited in the petitioner firm and the petitioner submitted its explanation by its letter dated 09.05.2012 and the Director of Mines and Geology also recommended grant of mining lease to the petitioner, but the mining lease application of the petitioner was not disposed of by the first respondent; the petitioner was pursuing the matter and also addressed letters on 19.09.2017 and 08.11.2017; petitioner came to know that the first respondent issued memo dated 01.06.2017 permitting the Director of Mines and Geology to issue notification for conducting e-auction and based on the memo dated 01.06.2017, the Director of Mines and Geology issued a notification dated 17.07.2017 inviting tenders for grant of mining lease including the applied area of the petitioner and that the Government also issued a memo dated 30.10.2017 deciding to issue letter of intent in favour of the fourth respondent as a preferred bidder for Yerragudi-Hussainapuram-Yennakandla limestone block over an extent of 146.676 Hectares in Survey No.USHB of Yerragudi, Survey No.20 of Hussainapuram, Survey No.390 of Yennakandla villages, Banaganapalli Mandal of Kurnool district in terms of Rule 10(2) of the Mineral (Auction) Rules, 2015; petitioner was not put on notice about the said decision and the petitioner’s application is the first application for the said area for which it was already granted prospecting license and the petitioner has acquired a right even under the amended Act 10 of 2015. Hence, the Writ Petition.

4. This Court, on 22.03.2018, while admitting the Writ Petition, granted an interim direction directing the official respondents 1 to 3, not to grant mining lease to the fourth respondent over the subject land.

5. Counter affidavit along with vacate stay petition has been filed by the first respon