(1) The Government may accept the request of a lease holder for surrender of a lease or part thereof in cases where it is established that it has not been found feasible to operate the mining lease grant, for whatsoever reasons, subject to the condition that the lessee,
(i) has been regular in furnishing the production returns as required in terms of the lease agreement;
(ii) has been taking the requisite steps for the progressive mine closure plan as per the conditions of the lease grant;
(iii) is not in default of payment of any mining dues on account of any mineral concession as on the date of making such application and undertakes to pay all such dues till the date of expiry of the notice period either in advance or by way of adjustment of the security or both:
(2) In case the lessee makes an application for surrender of part area of the lease, it shall not result in any prorated reduction of the dead rent and the rate of dead rent payable and applicable for the entire area at the time of such application shall remain intact.