that prior approval is required for the diversion of any forest A land and its use for some other purpose. This is further fortified by a look at Rule 4 which provides that every State Government or other authority seeking prior approval under Section 2 of the Act shall submit a proposal to the Central Government in the prescribed form and Rule 6 stipulates that the proposals would B be examined by a committee appointed under Rule 2-A within the parameters and guidelines postulated in Rule 5. There is nothing on record to suggest that this procedure had been adopted. Admittedly also the approval for 4.4 hectares had been obtained long after the lease deed had been executed on 151 c November 1989 and there is no suggestion that even for this limited area the procedure envisaged under Rules 4, 5 and 6 had been followed. We are, therefore, of the opinioh even assuming that some approval was granted with respect to 4.44 hectares of land in the year 1997, it would not amount to prior D approval in terms of the Act and the Rules afore quoted. Mr. Shrivastava has, however, pointed out that in the light of the judgment in Banshi Ram Modi's case (supra), as the 4.44 hectares of land were to be utilized for the purpose of an existing and adjoining mining activity, the prior approval envisaged unE der section 2 was not required. We find, however, that the aforesaid judgments do not apply to the facts of the present matter as it is nobody's case that any mining activity was going on near the land which is now sought to be leased out. In the above cited cases, the primary question was as to whether in the case of a lease granted prior to the coming into force of the Act, the F provisions of Section 2 would apply at the time of the renewal of the lease after the Act had become operative. Concededly this is not the case before us and on the contrary in Hyderabad Abrasives case (supra) it has been specifically observed that the material date "for the purpose of the Act is not the date of G the lease is granted, but the date on which the State Government or other authority permits the breaking up, or clearing of the forest land or any portion thereof', the implication being that the initial lease deed could be granted earlier to the promulgation of the Act, but for renewal, the provisions of the Act would H
