HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE NOOTY RAMAMOHANA RAO WRIT PETITION No.23158 of 2011 Date: August 25, 2011 Between: Mutyala Ramachander Rao … Petitioner And 1. The Government of Andhra Pradesh, rep. by its Secretary, Industries & Commerce Dept., Hyderabad & 2 others. … Respondents * * * HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE NOOTY RAMAMOHANA RAO WRIT PETITION No.23158 of 2011 O R D E R: This Writ Petition has been instituted complaining that respondents 2 and 3 viz., the Deputy Director of Mines and Geology, Hyderabad and the Assistant Director of Mines and Geology, Rajahmundry, East Godavari District, have not considered the application submitted by the petitioner for grant of mineral dealer licence in Form-D under the A.P. Mineral Dealers Rules, 2000. 2. The case of the writ petitioner is that he is having leasehold rights for sand quarry in respect of Alamur Sand Reach by virtue of the proceedings of the first respondent dated 29.4.2010 and the lease will be in force up to 31.03.2012. Earlier, the petitioner was granted Mineral Dealer Licence for sand storage/selling and trading in Survey Nos.423/2A, 423/2E, 424/1A, 424/E and 424/2A of Alamur village and Mandal, for the period commencing from 09.7.2010 to 30.11.2010. The petitioner made an application in the month of February 2011 to respondents 2 and 3 for grant of Mineral Dealer Licence for storage/selling/trading of the sand excavated in the same Survey numbers for the current year by paying required application fee and security deposit. Complaining that this application has not been disposed of so far, the present writ petition has been instituted. 3. It will be appropriate to notice that the application submitted for storage of sand under the A.P. Mineral Dealers Rules, 2000, is required to be processed by the Deputy Director of Mines and Geology. Sub-Rule (2) of Rule 5 makes it clear that the Deputy Director of Mines and Geology shall grant a dealers registration in Form-D for a period of five years within 30 days from the date of receipt of the application. In case of refusal or rejection of the application, the reason shall be recorded in writing and communicated to the applicant within 30 days from the date of receipt of the application. It is therefore incumbent upon the Deputy Director of Mines and Geology to have dealt with the application submitted by the writ petitioner in the month of February 2011 in accordance with law and ought to have been disposed of by now. Since more than 30 days time has already elapsed, it is only appropriate that respondent No.2, the Deputy Director of Mines and Geology, Hyderabad, should be directed to deal with the application submitted by the writ petitioner, as expeditiously as possible, preferably within a period of two weeks from today and communicate the decision taken thereon to the writ petitioner immediately. 4. With this, the Writ Petition stands disposed of. No costs. ________________________________ (NOOTY RAMAMOHANA RAO, J Date: August 25, 2011. BSB