Void Concessions, Directions and the Revisional Power

In one line

A concession granted contrary to the Act is void, the Centre may direct a State about how it administers the Act, and the Centre may revise almost any order made under it.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: section 19 provides that any mineral concession granted, renewed or acquired in contravention of the Act or the rules shall be void and of no effect; section 20 applies the Act and the rules to the renewal of a licence or lease granted before the Act's commencement; section 20A empowers the Central Government to issue directions to the State Governments for the conservation of mineral resources, on any policy matter in the national interest, and for the scientific and sustainable development and exploitation of mineral resources; and section 30 empowers the Central Government of its own motion or on application to revise an order of a State Government or other authority made under the Act for a mineral other than a minor mineral.

Section 19: void, not voidable

Section 19. Any reconnaissance permit, prospecting licence, exploration licence, mining lease or composite licence granted, renewed or acquired in contravention of the provisions of this Act or any rules made thereunder shall be void and of no effect.

"Void and of no effect" is stronger than "liable to be cancelled". A void concession confers nothing from the beginning. The holder is not a lessee whose lease may be terminated; he is a person mining without lawful authority, which brings section 21 into play.

That is why section 19 and section 21(5) work together, and why the compensation in the Odisha mining case was at a hundred per cent: a lessee who mined outside his clearances was, for those quantities, a person raising a mineral without lawful authority.

The section also reaches a renewal and an acquisition, so a lease validly granted and invalidly renewed is void as to the renewal. Goa Foundation v. Sesa Sterlite Ltd, (2018) 4 SCC 218, quashed second renewals without resting on section 19: the 2014 judgment had required fresh leases, and the renewals had been granted in undue haste to raise revenue, a consideration outside section 8(3).

Section 20: the older concessions

Section 20 provides that the Act and the rules apply to the renewal, after the Act's commencement, of a prospecting licence or mining lease granted before it, as they apply to the renewal of one granted afterwards.

The two dates matter. 25 October 1949 is the commencement of the Mines and Minerals (Regulation and Development) Act, 1948, and 1 June 1958 is the commencement of the present Act. A lease older than the first date is dealt with by section 16, modification; and the renewal of any lease granted before the present Act is governed by the Act through section 20.