National Mineral Policy 2006 - Department of Mines

2.17 Section 30 of the MMDR Act, which gives the power of revision to the Centralgovernment, reads as follows:Section 30: Power of revision of Central Government: The Central Government may, of its own motion oron application made within the prescribed time by an aggrieved party, revise any order made by a StateGovernment or other authority in exercise of the powers conferred on it by or under this Act with respectto any mineral other than a minor mineral.2.18 While this section could be invoked in cases in which the state government has passedan order there is no provision that could be invoked for providing relief in cases in which thetime limits are not adhered to and the state government has not passed any order at all orwhere the order has been issued (with or without reasons) but the time limits have not beenadhered to.2.19 In order to redress the situation described in the previous paragraph, the Committeewould recommend that Section 30 of the MMDR Act be amended to give jurisdiction to theCentral government to entertain applications from aggrieved parties and take a final decisionthereupon in the event of failure of the state government to take a decision within the timeframe envisaged in Rule 63A of MCR 1960. The revised Section 30 would read as follows:Section 30: Powers of the Central Government: The Central Government may ofits own motion or on application made within the prescribed time by an aggrievedparty:i. revise any order made by a State Government or other authority in exercise ofthe powers conferred on it by or under this Act with respect of any mineralother than a minor mineral, orii. Where no such order has been made by the State Government or otherauthority (in exercise of the powers conferred on it by or under this Act withrespect to any mineral other than a minor mineral) within the time prescribedtherefore (under Rule 63A), pass such order that it may think fit andappropriate in the circumstances:Provided that in cases covered by clause (ii) above, the Central Governmentshall, before passing any order under this clause, give an opportunity to the59