ATMA RAM BILOCHI Vs. STATE OF RAJASTHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This judgment will deal with S. B. Civil Writ Petition No. 955 of 1980 and the companion petitions listed above. The respective IN petitioners are all holders of different mining leases under the Mines and Minerals (Regulation and Development) Act, 1957, which will hereinafter be called the Act and the Rules made thereunder. Two common questions of law arise in these petitions and the same may be stated as under:-

(2.) It is not necessary to recapitulate here the pleadings of the parties in all the petitions. Such recapitulation may be made only in respect of the pleadings in S. B. Civil Writ Petition No. 955 of 1980 as typical of all the petitions. Atma Ram Bilochi is the petitioner in that case. By an instrument of lease, executed on April 7, 1975, he was granted a mining lease for excavating marble from an area measuring 7200 square meters for a term of five years. The rate of dead rent fixed under the then extant rules was Rs. 2.75 per 10 square metres. Thus, the total dead rent, payable by the petitioner in respect of the entire area of 7200 square metres, calculated at the rate of Rs. 2.75 per 10 square meters, worked out to Rs. 1980/- only.

(3.) The petitioner applied for renewal of the said lease in accordance with the provisions of Rule 17, Rajasthan Minor Mineral Concession Rules. 1977 (hereinafter called the Rules). The Rajasthan Government sanctioned renewal of the lease for a period of five years on the condition, inter alia, that the petitioner shall pay yearly dead rent of Rs. 15960/-instead of Rs. 1980/-. In terms of Rule 19 of the Rules, the Government notified the petitioner, vide the letter of sanction itself, that if he did not execute the formal lease within three months of the date of receipt of the sanction, the lease shall be deemed to have been revoked.