Public Law 86–294

That section 27 of the Mineral Leasing Act of February 25, 1920 (41 Stat. 437, 448), as amended (30 U.S.C., sec. 184), is further amended by the insertion, immediately after the sixteenth sentence, of the following: “The right of cancellation or forfeiture for violation of the provisions of this Act shall not apply so as to affect adversely the title or interest of a bona fide purchaser in any lease, option for a lease, or interest in a lease acquired in conformity with the acreage limitations of this Act from any other person, association or corporation whose holdings, or the holdings of a predecessor in title, including the original lessee of the United States, may have been canceled or forfeited, or may be subject to cancellation or forfeiture for any such violation. Any person, association or corportion who is a party to any proceedings with respect to a violation of any provision of this Act shall have the right to be dis-missed as such a party upon showing that the person, association or corporation acquired the interest involving him as such a bona fide purchaser without violating any provisions of this Act. If during any such proceedings with respect to a violation of any provisions of this Act a party to those proceedings files with the Secretary of the Interior a waiver of his rights under the lease to drill or to assign his interests thereunder or if such rights are suspended by order of the Secretary pending a decision in such proceedings, he shall, if he is found in such proceedings not in violation of such provisions, have the right to have his interest extended for a period of time equal to the period between the filing of the waiver or the order of suspension by the Secretary and the final decision, without the payment of rental.”

Sec. 2.

The rights granted by the second and third sentences of the amendment contained within section 1 of this Act shall apply with respect to any proceeding now pending or initiated after the date of enactment of this Act.