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yet granted to the petitioner. The grant of LOI, for the purposes of a prospective licence, of which there is no provision, either under the Old Act or in the Amendment, does not crystallize in any form of right in favour of the petitioner.

49. This aspect has been considered at length by the Madhya Pradesh High Court (in Savita Rawat). After giving a wide reference to a catena of judgments of Hon'ble Apex Court and Privy Council on the subject it came to the conclusion that no rights in a situation like this actually accrues in favour of the petitioner, in spite of the long pendency of their applications. Similar view has also been taken by the Hon'ble Judges of Andhra Pradesh High Court. Mere pendency of an application, which did not result in any statutory action on the part of the State or State authorities, (in form of either grant of a reconnaissance permit or a prospective licence), cannot be construed as accrual of any right in favour of the applicant. The petitioners had not crossed the stage before it could claim any right in its favour as stipulated under sub- section (2) of Section 10A of the Act.

53. As regarding the long pendency of the application of the petitioner is concerned, merely because the application of the petitioner for grant of a prospective licence has remained

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pending that itself would not bring a case in favour of the petitioner.

54. In State of Tamil Nadu v. Hind Stone (1981) 2 SCC 205, the Hon'ble Apex Court held as under:-

"While it is true that such applications should be dealt with within a reasonable time, it cannot on that account be said that the right to have an application disposed of in a reasonable time clothes an applicant for a lease with a right to have the application disposed of on the basis of the rules in force at the time of the making of the application. None has a vested right to the grant or renewal of a lease and none can claim a vested right to have an application for the grant or renewal of a lease dealt with in a particular way, by applying particular provisions. In the absence of any vested rights in anyone, an application for a lease has necessarily to be dealt with according to the rules in force on the date of the disposal of the application despite the fact that there is a long delay since the making of the application."

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validity of Section 10A but the focus of the argument was that the pending application of the petitioner for grant of mining rights should not be categorized as "ineligible", and rather it should be construed by the Court as eligible, considering the long pendency of the petitioner's application and an LOI being granted in his favour for prospective mining. It is only when a case for inclusion cannot be made out, that the petitioner in the alternative, has challenged the vires of the new Amendment.