The Supreme Court on Tuesday set aside the 2013 verdict of the Rajasthan High Court and paved the way for the auction of 50,000 mines in Rajasthan. The High Court had earlier directed the lease to be given on the basis of the first-come-first-served policy (FCFS).A bench of Justices A S Bopanna and M M Sundaresh took note of the submissions of senior advocate Manish Singhvi, appearing for the state government, that the administration was entitled to change the auction policy and the applicants had no inherent right to get a lease based on the FCFS policy.It has been decided by now that no right is vested on the pending application for lease of government land or on the under-soil minerals in any type of land, over which the government has inherent authority and regulatory control. The Supreme Court said that there should be statutory recognition for the right. Since independence, the Rajasthan government had been allotting mining leases based on the FCFS policy.In 2013, the state government came up with a policy of granting leases on an auction basis, which was challenged by various miners in the Rajasthan High Court, which quashed it. The state government had appealed in the Supreme Court in 2013 against the high court’s decision.
