Legislative amendments to the Mines and Minerals Act render pending applications ineligible, emphasizing transparency and auction processes for mineral concessions, with no retrospective applicability.

JUDGMENT :

Sujit Narayan Prasad, J.

1. The instant writ petition, under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, has been filed for the following reliefs:

(I) For a direction upon the concerned Respondents to forthwith grant prospecting mining lease to the Petitioner under Section 10 (3) of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957, in respect of the Application dated 14.07.2011 (Annexure-1), which was filed by the Petitioner for grant of prospecting license of Graphite Ore in Village Ekta, Lesliganj, Palamau, especially in view of the fact that the said application was duly processed vide Letter No. 34 dated 21.01.2013 (Annexure-4), all the documents were duly verified and found to be correct by the concerned Respondents vide letter No. 511 dated 16.08.2014 (Annexure-5) and as per File Note Sheet dated 09.01.2015 and dated 12.01.2015 (Annexure-6 Series) by which the proposal for publication of Notification of proposed area was made and only the prospecting license was required to be issued to the Petitioner by the Respondent Department, which could not be made due to operation of Code of Conduct and therefore newly inserted Section 10 A of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Ordinance, 2015, cannot be made applicable in the case of the Petitioner.

(II) For a declaration that new inserted Section 10 A of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Ordinance, 2015, which provides that all applications received prior to the date of commencement of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Ordinance, 2015 shall become ineligible, shall not apply in the case of the Petitioner on the ground that the application has been duly processed, all the documents were duly verified and found to be correct by the concerned Respondents and only the prospecting license was required to be issued to the Petitioner by the Respondent Department under section 10(3) of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957.

Factual Matrix

2. The facts, as narrated in the writ petition, in brief, is that the writ petitioner filed an application dated 14.07.2011 before the Secretary, Mines and Geology Department, Government of Jharkhand (Respondent No. 1) for prospecting license of Graphite Ore in the Village Ekta, Lesliganj, Palamau under Section 10 (1) of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 read with Rule 9(1) of the Mineral Concession Rules, 1960, along with all the relevant papers and documents as required under the provisions of said Act and Rules made thereunder.

3. On receipt of the aforesaid, the Respondent No. 3- Director (Mines), Mines & Geology Department, Government of Jharkhand forwarded the same to the concerned authority for its processing and verification and accordingly, the Circle Officer, Satbarwa, Palamau vide letter No. 176 dated 17.12.2011 submitted its report along with map, after due verification of the application by the Circle Office, to the Assistant Mining Officer, Palamau, Medninagar.

4. However, in the meantime, the Deputy Director, Mines and Geology, Daltonganj vide Letter No. 68 dated 16.08.2012 also submitted its Ge