WHAT DID THE COURT SAY?
In Debidutta Mohanty v. Ranjan Kumar Pattnaik & Ors., the Supreme Court held that a Collector is authorised under Rule 51(7) of the Orissa Minor Mineral Concession Rules, 2016 (OMMC) to cancel a lease deed on ground of non production of solvency certificate.
A Division Bench of Justice MR Shah and Justice B.V. Nagarathna noted this while setting aside the order passed by the Orissa High Court wherein, it was held that a Tahsildar and not a Collector is the appropriate authority to cancel a lease deed under the said provision.
WHAT IS THE CASE ABOUT?
In this case, an appeal was filed in the Supreme Court against the impugned order and judgement of the Orissa High Court, wherein the order of the Collector, Cuttack dated 24.03.2021 was quashed on the ground that the latter is not empowered to cancel a lease deed.
The issue in this case was whether a Collector or a Tehsildar has the authority to cancel a lease deed on non production of solvency certificate.
OBSERVATION OF THE COURT AND DECISION:
The Ld. Court observed that as per Rule 51(7) of OMCC, a Tehsildar has the authority to cancel lease deeds only in case of breach of any conditions mentioned in the lease deed.
However, in the context of the present case, the reason for the cancellation of the lease deed was non production of a valid solvency certificate and not the breach of any condition of the lease deed.
Hence, it is the Collector and not the Tehsildar who has the authority to cancel a lease deed under Rule 51(7) of OMMC Rules, 2016.
Accordingly, the appeal was allowed.
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