As per case facts, the petitioner was granted a mining lease for 20 years from 1964. After initial rejections and revisions, the lease was eventually renewed for a total of ... 20 years until 2013. The petitioner then applied for a second renewal. During this period, the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2015 came into force, abolishing renewals and extending existing leases to 50 years or until 2020. The petitioner sought an additional 9 years and 2 months of lease extension, arguing that this period was non-operational due to litigation and administrative delays. The respondents rejected this, citing a lack of statutory provisions for such an extension beyond the prescribed limits. The question arose whether the non-operational period caused by litigation and administrative delay should be excluded and added to the lease period, thereby extending the mining lease beyond the statutory limit set by the MMDR Amendment Act, 2015. Finally, the court ruled that the petitioner's claim for further extension was rightly rejected. The lease had already expired in 2013, before the 2015 amendment came into force, making Section 8-A inapplicable for the requested extension. The court also noted that the Government had already considered the non-operational period when granting a 20-year renewal instead of merely 10 years initially. Therefore, there was no statutory provision to allow for an additional exclusion or extension of the lease beyond the maximum statutory period, especially since the benefit for a 20-year lease was already provided.