Court No. - 39
Case :- WRIT - C No. - 26776 of 2018 Petitioner :- Gurbaj Singh Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 4 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Syed Mohd. Fazal,Sri S.G. Hasnain (Sr. Advocate) Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.
Hon'ble B. Amit Sthalekar,J. Hon'ble Jayant Banerji,J.
Civil Misc. Amendment Application No.2 of 2018, supported by affidavit, is taken up.
Heard Shri S.G. Hasnain, learned Senior Counsel assisted by Shri Syed Mohd. Fazal, learned counsel for the applicant- petitioner.
Shri Mata Prasad, learned Additional Chief Standing for the respondents has no objection.
Amendment Application is allowed. Let the necessary amendments be carried out in the course of the day.
This writ petition has been filed with the following prayers:
"(i) Issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of certiorari quashing the impugned recovery certificate dated 28.06.2018 passed by respondent no.2 (Annexure No. 16 to this writ petition).
(ii) Issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of mandamus commanding the respondent no.2 and 3 for keeping recovery proceeding in abeyance in pursuant to recovery certificate dated 28.06.2018, during the pendency of the appeal filed by the petitioner before Commissioner, Meerut Division, Meerut and during the pendency of present writ petition."
As per the amendment application that has been allowed today, another prayer has been added which is as follows:
"Issue a writ, order or direction in the nature of certiorari quashing the order dated 28.06.2018 passed by respondent no.4 in pursuant to order passed by respondent no.2 (Annexure No. 15 to this writ petition and Annexure A-1 to the present affidavit)."
The contention on behalf of the petitioner is that a lease-deed dated 1 February 2018 was executed between the petitioner and the District Magistrate, District Ghaziabad for mining operations in respect of a minor mineral (sand). Under the terms of the lease-deed, the petitioner had deposited an amount of Rs.4,27,96,100/- as the first installment and had furnished security of equal amount. Due to certain steps taken by the District Authorities in violation of legal provisions, the petitioner is unable to carry out his work under the terms of the lease and, therefore, he has moved an application on 25 June 2018 for revocation/termination of the lease before the District Magistrate as well as the State Government. The contention is that according to the first proviso to sub-section (4) of Section 4A of the Mines and Minerals (Regulation & Development) Act, 1957, the State Government may terminate the lease deed.
The learned Additional Chief Standing Counsel, on the other hand, has stated that admittedly, the application for revocation/termination of the lease was submitted on 25 June 2018 and by that time, as per the terms of the lease deed, the second installment of Rs.4,27,96,100/- became due on 1 April 2018. As such that amount also remains unpaid.
The learned Senior Counsel for the petitioner has drawn our attention to an order dated 28 June 2018 passed by this Court in Writ-C No.22232 of 2018 (Gurbaj Singh Vs. State of U.P. & Ors.) which had been filed by the petitioner for seeking a direction to the respondents to consider the representation of the petitioner for surrender/closure of the mining lease granted to him on 1 April 2018. This writ petition was disposed of with a direction to the competent authority to decide the application of the petitioner in accordance with law within a month. Thereafter, the impugned order dated 28 June 2018 was passed and consequently the recovery certificate dated 28 June 2018 was also issued.
It is stated that the against the recovery certificate dated 28 June 2018, the petitioner has preferred an appeal before the Commissioner of the Meerut Division on 2 July 2018 under Rule 77 of the U.P. Minor Mineral (Concession) Rules, 1963.
In view of the above, we find that no useful purpose would be served by keeping the writ petition pending.
Without expressing opinion on the merit of the case, it would be appropriate to direct that the appeal aforesaid that has been filed by the petitioner on 2 July 2018, a copy of which has been enclosed as Annexure-17 to the writ petition, be decided by the Commissioner after taking into account the issues raised by the petitioner, including the one made in paragraph 41 of the appeal with reference to the provisions of Section 4A(4) of the Mines and Minerals (Regulation & Development) Act, 1957, within a period of one month from the date the petitioner files a certified copy of this order before him.
With the aforesaid observations, the writ petition is disposed of.
Order Date :- 24.8.2018 SK