DISTRICT BHUDAN YAGYA SAMITI Vs. COLLECTOR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) U. P. Singh, J. Petitioner No. 1 in the first case is the District Samiti, the parent body being U. P. Bhudan Samiti, constituted under Bhudan Yagya Adhiniyam, 1952 and is a body corporate under the aforesaid Act and the petitioner No. 2 is the office bearer of the said Samiti. The said Samiti owned a private forest measuring about 745 bighas and 3 biswas. The said land is covered with thick Foliage and plants. The forest being a hilly tract, sand stones and other gravel are found as deposits in its sub soil. In 1987 the mining lease for an area of about 30 acres was granted from the, above said land for a period of 10 years, in favour of a private company. For the purpose of excavation the said company cut the trees and disturbed the ecological balance of the area and the petitioners filed the Writ Petition No. 7814 of 1988 (U. P. Bhudan Yagya Samiti v. The District Magistrate, Allahabad and others ). In the said writ petition this Court vide its order dated 26-4-88 restrained the said company from cutting any trees from the said area. The said writ petition is still pending for hearing before this Court.

(2.) ON 27th August, 1994, the Uttar Pradesh Minor Mineral (Concessions) Rules, 1963 (hereinafter called 'the Rules') were amended by the U. P. Minor Minerals (Concession) (Twentieth Amendment) Rules, 1994 (hereinafter referred to as 'the amended Rules' ). The newly inserted Rule 72 read as under : "availability of area for regrant to be notified.- (1) If any area, which was held under a mining lease or reserved under Section 15-A of the Act, becomes, available for regrant, the District Officer shall notify the availability of the area through a notice inviting application for grant of mineral concessions specifying a date, which shall not be earlier than thirty days from the date of notice and giving description of such area and a copy of such notice shall be displayed on the notice board of his office and shall also be sent to the Tehsildar of such area and the Director. (2) An application for the grant of a mining permit for such area which is already held under a lease or notified under sub-rule (1) of Rule 23 or reserved under Section 17-A of the Act and whose availability has not been notified under sub rule (1), shall be premature and shall not be considered and the application fee thereon, if paid shall be refunded. "

(3.) IN pursuance of this order the respondent No. 3 was restrained from excava tion and, thus, the respondent No. 3 filed the another Writ Petition No. 15749 of 1995. The respondents filed the counter affidavit and the case of the State as well as the respondent No. 3 is that the area had become available much prior to the date of the commencement of the said amended rules and the applications had been entertained in pursuance of the Government Order dated 23-11-93, and hence as the applications had been made and processed, though not finalised prior to the com mencement of the amended rules in force, the provisions of Rule 72 were not re quired to be followed and according to the respondents, there is no restriction under the Twentieth Amended Rules that any process started for grant of lease before 27th August, 1994, the date of the enforcement of the amended rules, shall automatically become obsolete and redundant. According to the Government Order dated 23-11-93 for the excavation of the land stone (building stones and gray-nite), the right to excavate would be created by granting the mining lease and the procedure of auction as provided under Rule 23 was withdrawn in exercise of the power enshrined in Rule 24 o)' the said rules.