The commissioner of school and public lands may accept a bid for a lease covering a period of one year or more, not exceeding five years, and in case no bids or proposals are made for any term, under the publication required in § 5-5-5, or in case of a failure from any cause to complete the leasing of any tract offered, it shall within nine months thereafter be lawful to lease such lands under the provisions of this chapter without a readvertisement. However, any lessee of such common school, indemnity, or endowment lands is, at the expiration of a lease, entitled to a new lease for the land included in his original lease, or such portion thereof which has not been sold, for a period of five years.

Source: SL 1917, ch 339, § 5; RC 1919, § 5637; SL 1923, ch 256, § 1; SDC 1939, § 15.0405; SL 1987, ch 47, § 2.