In recent days, the Contentious Administrative Chamber of the State Council declared the nullity of certain sections of articles 2 of Decree 935 of 2013, 7 of Resolution 299 of 2012 and 6 of Resolution 391 of 2013, which set forth a term of 3 working days for the submission of supporting documents from the time a proposal for a mining concession contract is filed, under penalty of rejection of such proposal.  

The Chamber considered that the articles introduced an essential element of the mining administrative procedure into the legal system, replacing the legislator in one of its most important tasks, which is the establishment of terms to operate a cause for rejection. Therefore, in the opinion of the Chamber, the National Government and the National Mining Agency exceeded their regulatory authority and violated the law. 

Thus, in the events of filing the mining proposal, the subsidiary procedure set forth in the Code of Administrative Procedure and Contentious-Administrative Matters should be applied. In light of this subsidiary procedure, Article 17 specifies that if the petition is incomplete, the administration has the obligation to require the petitioner, within ten (10) days from the date of filing, to complete the missing requirements or documents within a maximum of one (1) month.

It is worth noting that the nullity was declared without prejudice to the individual and definitive situations that have occurred and consolidated in force of the articles declared null.