TMI Blog1970 (9) TMI 106X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... r the whole of village Palasthali No. 39, situate in Thana Nala, Block Kasta, Sub-Division Jamtara in the District of Santal Parganas. He announced in that notice that the said area will be available for regrant with effect from August 1, 1959 and invited applications for grant of mining lease in respect of that area in accordance with the provisions of Mineral Concession Rules, 1949. The appellant, a partnership firm applied for that lease on June 24, 1959 itself. Thereafter other persons including the 5th respondent Nankhu Singh also applied for obtaining the lease in question. The State Government of Bihar granted the lease to the appellant on March 31, 1962. In pursuance of that grant a written agreement was entered into between the Sta ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... clay over 248 acres in Mouza Palasthali, P.S. Nala, Distt. Santal, Parganas. Sir, I am directed to refer to your application dated 17-10-1961 on the above subject and to-say that after careful consideration the Central Government hereby reject your revision application as being time-barred. Yours faithfully, Sd./-A. Nabar, Under Secretary to the Government of India. Thereafter the Central Government passed a further order on November 5, 1964 and that order reads thus : Registered A/D D. N. ROY V. BIHAR (.Hegde, J.) 5 2 5 GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF STEEL AND MINES (Department of Mines and Metals) No. MV-1(569)/61 New Delhi, the 5th November, 1964. From Shri H. S. Sahni, Under Secretary to the Governme ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... conferred by Rule 55 of Mineral Concession Rules, 1960 and all other powers enabling in this behalf hereby set aside the order of the State Government contained in their letter No. A/MM/4031/62-1789M, dated 5 2 6 31-3-1962 (mentioned in State Government's letter No. A/MM- 4031./62-3181/M, dated 9-6-1962) granting Mining lease to M/s. D. N. Roy and S. K. Banerjee and further direct them to through open the area again under Rule 58(1) of Mineral Concession Rule 1960 for regrant. The notification should clearly indicate the date from which the area could be available for regrant and the date by. which the petitioners should submit their applications for mineral concession. 4. M/s. D. N. Roy and S. K. Banerjee are being informed. Yours,- ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ely and secondly the Central Government had suo moto power to review the order of the State Government under s. 30 of the Mines and Minerals (Regulation and Development) Act, 1957. These conclusions of the High Court were assailed before us. In his application under rule 54 of the Mineral Concession Rules, 1960, the 5th respondent prayed for (i) setting aside the grant made in favour of the appellant and (ii) grant the area in question, on lease to him. The High Court thought that these are two independent prayers. In its view the Central Government by its order dated September 30, 1964 had disposed of only the prayer of the 5th respondent to grant the area on lease to him but it had not disposed of his first prayer namely to cancel the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... behalf . But in its return to the writ petition the Central Government did not plead that the impugned order was passed in exercise of its suo moto powers. We agree that if the exercise of a power can be traced to an existing power even though that power was not purported to have been exercised, under certain circumstances, the exercise of the power can be upheld on the strength of an undisclosed but undoubted power. But in this case the difficulty is that at no stage the Central Government intimated to the appellant that it was exercising its suo moto power. At all stages it purported to act under rules 54 and 55 of the Mineral Concession Rules, 1960. If the Central Government wanted to exercise its suo moto power it should have intimated ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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