Case: Madhya Pradesh Industries Ltd Vs. Union of India &amp; Others

2. The appellant, the Madhya Pradesh Industries Ltd.., is a public limited company engaged in mining manganese ore. On February 5, 1941, one Rai Bahadur Bansilal Abirchand took a lease of a land of extent 216 acres and 92 cents in the Government Forest, East Pench Range, in the Tahsil of Ramtek in the District of Nagpur, from the Governor of Central Provinces and Berar for a term of 15 years commencing from September 10, 1940. Under an indenture dated March 4, 1952, the appellant obtained a transfer of the said leasehold interest from the successors in interest of the said Bansilal Abirchand. After the transfer, the appellant entered into possession of the said extent of land and is alleged to have spent about Rs. 10,00,000 for the purpose of developing the area to carry out the mining operation. The said lease was to expire on September 9, 1955. On the expiry of the said lease the appellant applied for the renewal of the lease for a further period of 20 years to the appropriate authority, namely, the Secretary to Government, and Industries Department, Madhya Pradesh, Nagpur After protracted correspondence covering a period of about 3 years, the officer on special duty. Industries and Co-operation Department, State of Bombay, informed the appellant by letter dated September 2, 1958, that the said renewal could not be granted. The appellant filed a revision against that order to the Central Government, but that was dismissed on December 14, 1958 On April 9, 1959. the State of Bombay issued a notification calling for applications from the public in respect of the lease of the said mines. On May 15, 1959, the appellant filed an application for the grant of a lease for a period of 20 years in respect of the said mines. Presumably others also filed similar applications. On July, 8, 1959, the Government of Bombay made an order granting the entire of the said mines to the appellant and by letter dated July 14, 1959, informed him of the same. During the year 1960 the territories forming part of the State of Bombay were divided and the State of Maharashtra and the State of Gujarat came into being and the said mines fell in the Maharashtra State. On August 25, 1960, the Maharashtra Government issued a notification for the information of the public that the said mines were reserved for the exploitation of minerals in the public sector. Thereafter on January 16, 1961, the Collector of Nagpur informed the appellant that its application for the lease of the mines was rejected as the mines in question fell in a block reserved for State exploitation. On March 11, 1961, the appellant filed a revision to the Central Government against the said order. On June 22, 1961, the Central government informed the appellant that instructions had been issued to the Government of Maharashtra, Industries and Labour Department, Bombay, for reconsidering its application and, therefore, it might pursue the matter with the said Government. Accordingly, the appellant took up the matter with the Maharashtra Government. By letter dated December 19, 1961, the Government of Maharashtra informed the appellant that its application for the mining lease had been rejected. Thereafter, the appellant on or about February 17 1962, filed a revision application before the Central Government against the said order of the Government of Maharashtra. On October 17, 1964, the Central Government rejected the revision application. It is stated in the counter-affidavit filed by the Central Government that subsequently the Government of Maharashtra, after obtaining the consent of the Central Government, had issued a notification dated March 26, 1965, inviting applications from the public for the grant of mineral concessions in the said area. It is also stated therein that the appellant has submitted its application for the grant of mining lease in respect of the said area in response to the said notification. This is not disputed. The appellant filed the present appeal against the order of the Central Government dated October 17, 1964, dismissing its revision petition against the order of the Government of Maharashtra. To that appeal, the Central Government is made the first respondent; the Under Secretary to the Government of India in the Ministry of Steel and Mines, who made the said order the second respondent; and the State of Maharashtra, the third respondent.

Reasoning: 17. The reason for rejecting the revision application appears on the face of the impugned order. The revision application was rejected, because the Central Government agreed with the reasons given by the State Government in its order, dated December 19, 1961, and the application did not disclose any valid ground for interference with the order of the State Government. In our opinion, the Central Government, acting under R. 55, was not bound to give in its order, fuller reasons for rejecting the application18. Mr. Pathak contended that the effect of Art. 136 of the Constitution is that every order appealable under that Article must be a speaking order and the omission to give reasons for the decision is of itself a sufficient ground for quashing it. We are unable to accept this broad contention. For the purposes of an appeal under Art. 136, orders of Courts and tribunals stand on the same footing. An order of Court dismissing a revision application often gives no reasons, but this is not a sufficient ground for quashing it. Likewise, an order of an administrative tribunal rejecting a revision application cannot be pronounced to be invalid on the sole ground that it does not give reasons for the rejection19. In support of his contention Mr. Pathak relied upon the following observations of Shah, J., in 1962-2 SCR 339  at p. 357: (AIR 1961 SC 1669  at p. 1678):"If the Central Government acts as a tribunal exercising judicial powers and the exercise of that power is subject to the jurisdiction of this Court under Art. 136 of the Constitution, we fail to see how the power of this Court can be effectively exercised if reasons are not given by the Central Government in support of its order"20. In that case, it appears that the Central Government acting as an appellate tribunal under S. 111 (3) ofthe Companies Act, 1956, had without giving any reasons for its order, set aside a resolution of the directors of a company refusing to register certain transfers of shares. There was nothing on the record to show that the Central Government was satisfied that the action of the directors in refusing to register the shares was arbitrary and untenable, and, moreover, on the materials on the record it was not possible to decide whether or not the Central Government transgressed the limits of its restricted power under S. 111 (3). The Central Government reversed the decision appealed from without giving any reasons; nor did the record disclose any apparent ground for the reversal. In this context, Shah. J. made the observations quoted above, and held that there was no proper trial of the appeals and the appellate order should be quashed. Hidayatullah, J., at p. 370 of the Report (SCR): (at p. 1684 of AIR), pointed out that there was no reason for the reversal and the omission to give reasons led to the only inference that there was none to give. There is a vital difference between the order of reversal by the appellate authority in that case for no reason whatsoever and the order of affirmance by the revising authority in the present case. Having stated that there was no valid ground for interference, the revising authority was not bound to give fuller reasons. It is impossible to say that the impugned order was arbitrary, or that there was no proper trial of the revision application.