As legal complications galore After the judiciary pulled the State Government to act on disposal of mining lease renewal applications in Odisha, the Mines Department, which intentionally had kept the RML applications pending for years without any disposal for the benefit of its political bosses, suddenly woke up to get the work done in a quick manner. According to Mineral Concession Rules 1960 Sec 24-A, sub rule 6, “If an application for renewal of a mining lease made within the time referred in sub rule 1 is not disposed of by the State Government before the expiry of lease, the period of that lease shall be deemed to have been extended by a further period till the State Government passes order thereon.” As many as 334 mining leases in Odisha claim their validity under this deemed extension clause just because their RML applications had not been disposed of till date. Many of the mining leases have even crossed their second and third subsequent renewal periods too. When the matter came up in the High Court more than a year back, the State Government had assured to clear renewal of all applications within six months. But little action was taken until the Supreme Court felt that no mining should commence without valid lease deed and directed the Government to shut down mines whose lease had expired but were operating under deemed extension. Out of 187 iron and manganese mines in the State, 131 leases are defunct since 2009 due to lack of statutory clearances. The 56 working mines included 40 mines whose lease has expired but are continuing under deemed extension phase. The Supreme Court’s recent order shut down 26 iron and manganese mines after which eight mining lease applications belonging to OMC, SAIL and Tata have been granted working permissions and their renewals are conditionally being approved through an express process. Can the express renewal process solve the legal complications expected to arise regarding the lease renewal? How many leases are legally valid? The MCR rule 24-A subrule-6 regarding deemed extension of lease came in force by GSR 724(E) on September 27, 1994. Prior to this amendment, the MCR 24-A stated that if a renewal mining lease application is not disposed of by the State Government before the expiry of the lease, then the application will be deemed rejected. Hence, all mining leases which expired before September 27, 1994 and RMLs pending for disposal till date are to be treated deemed rejected cases. The case is applicable in case of mining lease held by the Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC) pertaining to Sakradihi which expired since December 27, 1989, Gandhamardan (A) since June 20, 1993, Dalki lease since August 6,1996, Banspani lease since May 20, 1996 and Barsuan Kalta iron mines of SAIL which expired since January 5, 1990. There are still many deemed rejected RMLs held by private and public sectors which are listed under mines working under deemed extension clause. The Sec-4 of MMDR Act states, “Where the holder of mining lease fails to undertake mining operation for a period of two years after the date of execution of lease or after having commenced mining operations discontinued the same for a period of 2 years, the lease shall lapse from the date of execution of lease or as the case maybe, discontinuance of the mining operation”. In this clause, hundreds of non working mines which have remained closed for more than two years in the past should be considered lapsed leases. The guidelines for scrutiny of RMLs mentions that applications of individuals or firms against whom violation of mining, forest and environment law cases are pending should not be considered for grant of renewals. But most of the mining companies have evidence of such violations. In the executed mining lease deed agreement, any deviations or violation of the terms in the deed agreement and illegal mining violating lease agreement terms will result in immediate cancellation of the lease. If lease deed agreement will be taken into account how many leases would remain valid? The State Government has laid down terms before the mining companies to clear all fines, penalties, dues of the Government before grant of renewals, but none has deposited the fine for excess mining and are busy finding alternate ways for getting their renewals done.