By the Court.—Heard Sri M.D. Singh ‘Sekhar’, Senior Advocate assisted by Deo Prakash Singh, Sri Deobrat Mukherjee and Mrs Amrita Rai for the petitioners and Sri Raghvendra Singh, learned Advocate General assisted by Sri R.K.S. Chauhan for the State respondents.

2. This batch of writ petitions had been preferred challenging the validity of Rule 9-A of the U.P. Minor Mineral (Concession) Rules 1963 (1963 Rules). Various other reliefs were also sought in the writ petitions including a challenge to the Government Order dated 22 October 2014 which in turn had brought to an end a declaration dated 31 May 2012 mandating settlement of mining leases in the State of U.P by way of e-tender in terms of Part-IV of the 1963 Rules. These writ petitions were allowed on 3 April 2015 whereby the following operative directions were issued :

“(I). The word “lease” as used in Rule 34 of the Concession Rules in the matter of making of the application for environmental clearance/approval of the mining plan may be read to mean “selected applicant” only and if required the State Government may make necessary amendments therein.

(II). No mining lease under the Notification dated 22.10.2014 shall b