102

In the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh

.....

CWP No.20303 of 2021

.....

Date of Decision:09.11.2021

M/s Pioneer Partners

....Petitioner

Vs.

State of Haryana and others

.....Respondents

.....

Coram:

Hon'ble Mr. Justice M.S. Ramachandra Rao

Hon'ble Mr. Justice Karamjit Singh

.....

(Heard through Video-Conferencing)

.....

Present:

Mr. Puneet Bali, Senior Advocate with Mr. Vibhav Jain and Mr.

Vikram Singh Brar, Advocates for the petitioner.

Mr. Lokesh Sinhal, Senior Additional Advocate General,

Haryana for respondents No.1 to 4.

Mr. Sanjay Kaushal, Senior Advocate with Mr. Ishaan

Bhardwaj, Advocate for the Caveator/respondent-The Warrier

Mining Minerals and Infra Pvt. Ltd.

.....

M.S. Ramachandra Rao, J.

The background facts:

The Department of Mines and Geology, State of Haryana issued

an E-auction Notice dt. 22.01.2016 inviting bids for mining leases for

extraction of minor minerals “Stone along with Associated minor minerals”

from the mines of the Districts of Mahendergarh and Bhiwani and “Slate

Stone mine” of District Rewari.

The petitioner, which is a partnership firm constituted under the

Partnership Deed dt. 12.02.2016 having four partners submitted its bid for

HARPAL SINGH PARMAR

2021.11.15 14:25

I attest to the accuracy and

integrity of this document

CWP No.20303 of 2021

[2]

obtaining mining lease of Minor Mineral Mine, namely, “Pichopa Kalan Plot

No.2” for extraction of “Stone along with Associated minor minerals” having

tentative area of 22.40 hectares by quoting a bid amount of `16,46,50,000/-

per annum against the reserve price of `14,75,00,000/- per annum. E-auction

was held on 16/17.03.2016.

The Director General of Mines and Geology Department, State of

Haryana (3^rd respondent) informed the petitioner that its bid was the highest

bid in respect of the said mine vide Letter of Intent dt. 11.04.2016.

Thereafter, there was a change in the constitution of petitioner-

firm and two partners were inducted into it under Partnership Deed dt.

16.05.2016.

The petitioner then submitted the draft ML-1 Form along with all

relevant documents for the perusal of the Mining Officer, Bhiwani, Haryana

(4^th respondent) and also submitted the new Partnership Deed dt. 16.05.2016

containing the names of the six partners along with a letter of authority in

favour of Mr. Deepak Agarwal, one of the partners, for execution of the lease

deed on behalf of the petitioner-firm.

The 3^rd respondent then informed the petitioner on 02.09.2016

that 4^th respondent vide memo dt. 22.07.2016 had sent the draft lease deed

agreement papers (draft ML-1 Form) submitted by the petitioner to a

Chartered Accountant for scrutiny/examination, and upon scrutiny, certain

discrepancies were noticed. The petitioner was further asked to complete the

short-comings/submit the additional documents/clarification/amended

affidavits etc. as per the observations of the Chartered Accountant within a

HARPAL SINGH PARMAR

2021.11.15 14:25

I attest to the accuracy and

integrity of this document

CWP No.20303 of 2021

[3]

week so that further action could be taken. The petitioner was also to submit

the copy of the old Partnership-Deed.

The petitioner then submitted all the documents sought through a

letter on 15.09.2016 annexing both the Partnership-Deeds i.e. earlier

Partnership Deed dt. 04.03.2015 and the Partnership Deed dt. 12.02.2016 (old

Partnership-Deed).

After considering this material, the 3^rd respondent executed Lease

Agreement on 09.11.2016 with the petitioner for a period of ten years in

respect of the said mine.

On 23.05.2017, the petitioner applied for and was granted

requisite environment clearance for the said mining project by the State

Environment Impact Assessment Authority, Haryana.

The petitioner also applied for and was granted Consent to

Establish as well as Consent to Operate the said mining project by the Haryana

State Pollution Control Board on 02.