Chapter III PAYMENT OF AMOUNTS

Every concession holder specified in the second column of the First and the Second Schedules shall be given by the Central Government, in cash, and in the manner specified in Chapter IV, for the abolition of the mining concessions held by him, and declaring it as a mining lease, under section 4, an amount equal to the amount specified against him in the corresponding entry in the eighth column of the First Schedule and the ninth column of the Second Schedule, as the case may be.

(1) There shall also be given by the Central Government, in cash, to every concession holder specified in the second column of the First and the Second Schedules, simple interest at the rate of four per cent. per annum on the amount specified against such concession holder in the corresponding entry in the eighth column of the First Schedule and the ninth column of the Second Schedule, as the case may be, for the period commencing on the date of assent and ending on the date of payment of such amount to the Commissioner. (b) any amount paid by the concession holder for the said period, either as a fixed tax or as a proportional tax, or both, or as a royalty under protest shall be deemed to have been dead rent or, as the case may be, royalty, paid in accordance with law and such amounts shall not be liable to be refunded; and (c) due credit of all such amounts paid by a concession holder under clause (b) shall be given to him in determining the dead rent or, as the case may be, royalty payable by him under clause (a), as if this Act and the Mines and Minerals Act and the rules made thereunder had been in force at all material times, and accordingly— (i) no suit or other proceeding shall be instituted, maintained or continued in any court or other authority against the Government or any person or authority whatsoever for the refund of any amounts paid by a concession holder under clause (b); and (ii) no court shall enforce any decree or order directing the refund of any amounts so paid, on the ground that the mining concession is not a mining lease. (2) For the removal of doubts, it is hereby declared that nothing in sub-section (1) shall be construed as preventing any person,— (a) from questioning, in accordance with the provisions of the Mines and Minerals Act and the rules made thereunder, the assessment of any dead rent or royalty for the said period; or (b) from claiming refund of any dead rent or royalty paid by him in excess of the amount due from him under the Mines and Minerals Act and the rules made thereunder.