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Consequently, there had been a slowdown in the grant of new concessions and the renewal of existing licenses/leases. As a result, the mining sector had started registering a decline in production affecting the manufacturing sector which largely depends on the raw material provided by mining sector. The Government, therefore, felt it necessary to address the immediate requirements of the mining sector and also to remedy the basic structural defects that underline the impasse then prevalent.
37.4 In this backdrop, the tenure of mineral leases has been increased, by introducing Section 8A of the Amendment Act, from the period of 30 plus 20 years to 50 years by deleting the provision for renewal of leases. The Legislature, keeping in view the issue of renewal, as aforementioned, in its wisdom, and in order to avoid the delay and hassles of renewal procedure, extended the period of mining lease to 50 years and thereby addressed the immediate requirements of the mining sector and cured the basic structural defects. Even the mining leases executed prior to this date were also given the benefit by introducing the deeming provision under sub- section (3) of Section 8A of the Amendment Act. In this view of the matter, we do not find any merit in the grounds of HC-NIC Page 10 of 14 Created On Sat May 07 05:03:51 IST 2016 challenge to this provision of the Amendment Act. The period of 50 years is quite a long period from the date of awarding the prospecting license-cum-mining lease. In any case, the law is well settled that the provision cannot be struck down being unconstitutional unless it is in violation of any of the fundamental rights guaranteed in Part.III of the Constitution or of any other constitutional provisions. It is not the case of the petitioners that the Parliament while enacting this provision lacked the legislative competence. In view of the law laid down by the Supreme Court in the judgments referred to in the foregoing paragraphs in particular in McDowell & Company, United Yarn Tex (P) Limited, P. Laxmi Devi, K.T. Plantation Private Limited and A.K. Thakur, this ground of challenge deserve to be rejected outright."