The court emphasized the necessity of adjudicating on the legality of a demand notice for compensation in mining cases to prevent irreparable loss to the petitioner.

JUDGMENT :

1. The instant appeal is under Clause 10 of the Letters Patent is directed against the order dated 10.12.2021 passed by learned Single Judge of this Court in W.P.(C) No.816 of 2018 whereby and whereunder the writ petition has been dismissed.

2. The brief facts of the case, as per the pleading made in the writ petition is required to be enumerated which reads as under:-

3. It is the case of the petitioner that the matter relates to a mining lease for the mineral iron ore situated in Village Charipathburu, District, West Singhbhum, spread over an area of 209.25 acres (84.68 hectares) commonly known as the Thakurani Iron Ore Mine.

4. The petitioner/predecessor-in-interest became the lessee of the said Mine on 01.04.1969. In accordance with the Mineral Concession Rules, 1960 a renewed mining lease deed was executed on 09.06.1986 for a period of 30 years from 01.01.1982 to 31.12.2011. The said lease deed was executed in favour of one Gyan Chand Jain. On or about 02.03.1997, the lease was duly transferred in favour of the present petitioner after obtaining prior approval of the State Government and the State Government has acknowledged the petitioner as a valid mining lessee.

5. An application for further renewal was made on 23.12.2010. While the aforesaid application for third renewal was pending consideration before the State Government, the Mines and Minerals (Development & Regulation) Amendment Act, 2015 came into effect from 12.01.2015 and the State Government by an order contained in letter No.184/M dated 22.01.2016 refused extension of the lease period in terms of Section 8A (6) of the MMDR Act, 1957, as amended by the Amendment Act of 2015.

6. Aggrieved by such refusal, the petitioner preferred a revision application before the Revisional Authority being Revision Application No. 06/13/2016 RC-1. The said revision application was allowed by a Final order No. 25/2017 dated 18.01.2017 and the order of the State Government was set aside and the matter was remanded to the State Government for suitable reconsideration in terms of the judgment of the Hon'ble Supreme Court dated 04.04.2016 passed in WP(C) No.114 of 2014.

7. Thereafter, the State Government considered the case of the petitioner and extended the period of lease up to 31.03.2020. The said decision of the State Government was communicated to the petitioner by a letter contained in memo No. 851/M Chaibasa dated 18.05.2017.

8. On account of a delay by the State Government in extending the period of the petitioner's lease, the petitioner lost considerable time in getting the statutory clearances processed, a supplementary lease deed for extension was executed in favour of the petitioner on 21.07.2017. The said deed was registered on 31.08.2017.

9. The petitioner, in order to register the supplementary lease deed for extension, has paid Rs.1,58,65,250/- as stamp duty charges and Rs.86,09,851.31 as registration fee.

10. Despite the extension of the lease period, the petitioner could not commence its mining operation as it did not have consent to operate from the Jharkhand State Pollution Control Board. However, as on date, the petitioner has obtained all the statutory clearances required for commencing and continuing mining operations.

11. It is the further case of the petitioner that in terms of the mining lease granted to the petitioner, the petitioner extracted Iron Ore entirely within the leased area only and has duly paid to the State Government upto date royalty, rent taxes, for all the minerals extracted by it.

12. The petitioner has duly observed all his governances and filed its statutory returns under the MMDR Act and the Rules made thereunder, which have been duly accepted by all the authorities concerned, such as the Indian Bureau of Mines and Stat Government. Likewise, other statutory returns have also been duly filed with the authorities concerned.

13. The office of the District Mining Office, Chaibasa, by a demand notice as contained in memo No.218/M dated 05.02