ABHAI KUMAR SINGH Vs. STATE OF JHARKHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this writ application the petitioner prays for issuance of appropriate writ for quashing the settlement of Balu Ghats of Ranchi District made in favour of respondent No. 3, namely, Jharkhand (Bihar) State Mining Development Corporation for the period 1-1-2001 to 31-12-2001 and further for direction to the respondent No. 2 to settle the same with the petitioner who stood as highest bidder in the auction held on 19-12-2000.

(2.) Petitioner's case is that on 28-11-2000 by the order of the Deputy Commissioner, a notice was advertised in the newspaper for auction of Balu Ghats of Ranchi District. A copy of the notice dated 28-11-2000 and the advertisement published in the newspaper have been annexed as Annexures-1 and 2 to the writ application . One of the condition in the aforesaid notification was that if the bidders desire to take the auction of all the Balu Ghats of Ranchi District collectively, then all units of Balu Ghats lying under the Ranchi District shall be auctioned as a single unit and for that the minimum amount for the auction was fixed at Rs. 66,53.,130=00. Petitioner's further case is that as per notification bid was held on 19-12-2000 treating all the units as a single unit and the petitioner stood as highest bidder among all the persons participated in the auction. The highest amount of the bid came to Rs.85,00,000/- which was made by the petitioner. It is stated that on confidential information petitioner came to know that the Deputy Commissioner is going to settle the Balu Ghats in favour of respondent No. 3 Bihar State Mining Development Corporation, herein after referred to as the Corporation, on the basis of circular dated 20-12-1999 issued by Mining DepartmentA copy of the circular dated 20-12-1999 has been annexed as Annexure-3 to the writ petition. Immediately after the information petitioner said to have filed representation before the Deputy Commissioner, Ranchi expressing his readiness to take settlement at the higher amount than the proposed amount on which the Deputy Commissioner is going to settle the Ghats with the Corporation.

(3.) A counter-affidavit has been filed on behalf of respondent No. 2, Deputy Commissioner, Ranchi stating inter alia that the settlement of the sand ghats as minor mineral is done by Public auction according to the provisions of Minor Mineral Concession Rules and also circulars and the guidelines time to time issued by the State Government. It is stated that process of settlement of twenty three sand ghats was initiated by the District Mining Officer, Ranchi and several applications alongwith requisite security drafts were received in the office from the interested applications for participating in the proposed auction of ghats of sand. Auction was scheduled to be held on different dates and all the applications were examined. After examination, it was found that there were only eight sand ghats for which three-four bidders wanted to participate in the auction. It was also found that there were six sand ghats, for which one bidder in each ghat was interested to take part in the auction and for the rest nine sand ghats, no bidder was interested/ available for taking part in auction. Petitioner and respondent No. 3, the Corporation were interested for taking settlement of the ghats treating the entire district as one unit. In such circumstances, Deputy Commissioner, Ranchi decided to conduct auction both ghat wise as well as treating all the sand ghats as one unit in order to assess the potentiality of getting maximum revenue side. It is further stated in the counter-affidavit that against the auction of all the sand ghats treating these as one unit, four bidders participated in the auction including the petitioner and respondent No. 3 and the petitioner was highest bidder with Rs. 85,00,000/-. On 20-12-2000 the Corporation made an offer that it wanted to take all the sand ghats of Ranchi district on settlement at Rs. 93,72,172/- which is 10% higher than the highest bid. Since, the Corporation had not participated in ghatwise auction and Rs. 85,20,156/- i.e. highest bid amount (jointly and collectively) was higher than the bid amount offered by the petitioner, respondent No. 2 decided to settle all the 23 sand ghats in favour of the Corporation. It is further stated that settlement of all the sand ghats of Ranchi district in favour of respondent No. 3, Corporation, is fully justified and is in accordance with law and guidelines framed by the State Government (Annexure-3)