JUDGMENT/ORDER

1. Rule. With the consent of the parties, Rule made returnable forthwith and heard finally. Learned Counsel appearing for the Respondents, waive notice.

2. By the present Writ Petition, exception is taken to the Order dtd. 21/10/2022 ("impugned Order"), passed by the Specified Authority in the exercise of its powers of review. By the impugned order, the Specified Authority withdrew the permission granted to the Petitioner under Sec. 25-N of The Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 (for short the 'ID Act') to retrench 313 workmen engaged by the Petitioner at the Bicholim Iron Ore Mines, Goa.

3. Initially, an application seeking permission for the aforesaid retrenchment was sought predominantly on account of the Petitioner ceasing to hold any Mining Lease in view of the Judgment of the Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Goa Foundation vs. Sesa Sterlite Ltd and Ors (2018) 4 SCC 218)(for short, 'Goa Foundation-II'). When this application was made by the Petitioner [seeking permission to retrench 313 workmen (under Sec. 29-N of the ID Act)], the same was granted by the Specified Authority by its Order dtd. 1/9/2022. After this Order was passed by the Specified Authority, the Respondent No.4 - Union, filed an application under Sec. 25-N(6) of the ID Act for review of the Order dtd. 1/9/2022. In the meantime, and while the said review was pending, the Respondent No.4 - Union also filed Writ Petition No. 2123 of 2022 challenging the Order of the Specified Authority dtd. 1/9/2022 (granting permission to the Petitioner to retrench 313 workmen). This Writ Petition was disposed of by directing the Specified Authority to decide the Review Application filed by the Respondent No.4 - Union in a time-bound manner, and ordered that in the meanwhile, the permission granted to retrench 313 workmen shall not to be given effect to until the Review Application filed by the Respondent No.4 - Union was decided. It is thereafter that the Specified Authority heard the parties again and by its order dtd. 21/10/2022 reviewed its earlier Order [dtd. 1/9/2022] and withdrew the permission given to the Petitioner to retrench 313 workmen. It is this Order dtd. 21/10/2022 [passed in review] that is impugned in the present Writ Petition.

4. The brief facts that need to be noted for deciding the controversy in the present Petition are this. The Petitioner was granted under the Portuguese Colonies the Mining Leases-Mining Concessions bearing TC Nos. 11/1941, 12/1941, 13/1941, 14/1941 and 15/1941. Subsequently, these Mining Concessions were converted into Mining Leases by virtue of the Goa Daman and Diu Mining Concessions (Abolition and Declaration as Mining Leases) Act, 1987. All the above Leases worked together and were called as the Bicholim Mines.

5. On 10/9/2012, the Government of Goa suspended Mining operations in the State of Goa, and thereafter by an Order dtd. 14/9/2012, the Ministry of Environment and Forest, Government of India, suspended the Environmental Clearance granted to the Mines. Consequently, the Petitioner had to halt all Mining operations from 10/9/2012. The Goa Foundation also filed Writ Petition No. 435 of 2012 in the Hon'ble Supreme Court, when the Apex Court directed that no Mining operations would be carried out in the State of Goa until further orders. Resultantly, Mining operations at Bicholim Mines ceased w.e.f. 10/9/2012.

6. The aforesaid Writ Petition No.435 of 2012 was thereafter allowed by Hon'ble Supreme Court on 21/4/2014, [reported in Goa Foundation vs. Union of India and Ors. (2014) 6 SCC 590), (for short, Goa Foundation-I)], inter alia, holding that Mining operations could not have b