9911796707
TMI Blog1981 (2) TMI 239X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... o that extent, it becomes a subject for Parliamentary legislation. Parliament has accordingly enacted the Mines and Minerals (Regulation and Development) Act, 1957. By S. 2 of the Act it is declared that it is expedient in the public interest that the Union should take under its control the regulation of mines and the development of minerals to the extent thereafter provided. It is now common ground between the parties that as a result of the declaration made by Parliament, by S. 2 of the Act, the State legislatures are denuded of the whole of their legislative power with respect to regulation of mines and mineral development and that the entire legislative field has been taken over by Parliament. That this is the true position in law is clear from the pronouncements of this Court in The Hingir Rampur Coal Co. Ltd. Ors. v. The State of Orissa Ors. State of Orissa v. M.A., Tulloch Co. and Baijnath Kedia v. State of Bihar Ors. S. 3 of the Mines and Minerals (Regulation and Development) Act, 1957, defines various expressions occurring in the Act. S. 3 (a) defines 'minor minerals' and it includes any mineral declared to be a minor mineral by the Central Government by a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... to be maintained by the State Government. S.13 empowers the Central Government to make rules for regulating the grant of prospecting licences and mining leases. In particular we may mention that S.13(2) (a) empowers the Central Government to make rules providing for 'the persons by whom, and the manner in which, applications for prospecting licences or mining leases in respect of land in which the minerals vest in the Government may be made and the fees to be paid therefor . S.13(2) (f), we may add, empowers the Central Government to make rules providing for 'the procedure for obtaining a prospecting licence or a mining lease in respect of any land in which the minerals vest in a person other than the Government and the terms on which, and the conditions subject to which, such a licence or lease may be granted or renewed'. S.14 makes the provisions of Sections 4 to 13 inapplicable to minor minerals. S.15 empowers the State Government to make rules for regulating the grant of quarry leases, mining leases and other mineral concessions in respect of minor minerals and purposes connected therewith. S.15(3) provides for the payment of royalty in respect of minor minerals at ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... , forward the application along with his remarks to the Director of Industries Commerce who shall technically scrutinise the industrial programme given by the applicant and forward the application with his remarks to the Government. (G. O. Ms. No. 993 Industries dt. 25-8-1975 . Rule 8-C was introduced by G. O. Ms. No. 1312 Industries dated December 2, 1977. By this rule leases for quarrying black granite in favour of private persons are banned. Leases can only be granted in favour of a Corporation wholly owned by the State Government. It is the vires of this rule which was under challenge before the High Court and is also under challenge now. It will be useful to extract the same. It is as follows: 8-C Lease of quarries in respect of black granite to Government Corporation, etc. (1) Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in these rules, on and from 7th December, 1977 no lease for quarrying black granite shall be granted to private persons. (2) The State Government themselves may engage in quarrying black granite or grant leases for quarrying black granite in favour of any corporation wholly owned by the State Government. Provided that in respect of any ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 8C. It was also observed that even if Rule 8C was valid it applied only to the grant of fresh leases and not to renewals. It was also held that it was not open to the Government to keep the applications pending for a long time and then to dispose them of on the basis of a rule which had come into force later. The State Government has come in appeal against the judgment of the Madras High Court while the respondent- applicants have tried to sustain the judgment of the Madras High Court on grounds which were decided against them by the Madras High Court. The learned Attorney General who appeared for the Government of Tamil Nadu submitted that the approach of the High Court was vitiated by its failure to notice the crucial circumstance that the minerals belonged to the Government and the applicants had no vested or indefeasible right to obtain a lease or a renewal to quarry the minerals. There were good reasons for banning the grant of leases to quarry black granite to private parties and in the light of those reasons the Government could not be compelled to grant leases which would result in the destruction of the mineral resources of the country. Shri K. K. Venugopal, learned co ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... vernment, if it is expedient in the interest of regulation of mines and mineral development to do so. In the case of minor minerals, the State Government is similarly empowered, after consultation with the Central Government. The public interest which induced Parliament to make the declaration contained in S. 2 of the Mines Minerals (Regulation and Development) Act, 1957. has naturally to be the paramount consideration in all matters concerning the regulation of mines and the development of minerals. Parliament's policy is clearly discernible from the provisions of the Act. It is the conservation and the prudent and discriminating exploitation of minerals, with a view to secure maximum benefit to the community. There are clear sign posts to lead and guide the subordinate legislating authority in the matter of the making of rules. Viewed in the light shed by the other provisions of the Act, particularly sections 4A, 17 and 18 it cannot be said that the rule making authority under S. 15 has exceeded its powers in banning leases for quarrying black granite in favour of private parties and in stipulating that the State Government themselves may engage in quarrying black granite o ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... same to Government. At the same time, in the G.O. issued along with amendment, it was stated that if any of the State Government Organisations like Tamil Nadu Small Industries Corporation Limited, Tamil Nadu small Industries Development Corporation Limited, Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation Limited is interested to obtain a lease for black granite in a particular area, preference will be given to Government undertaking over other private entrepreneurs for granting the leases applied for by them. However, in spite of these amendments to regulate the grant of mining lease, there were a large number of lessees (exceeding 140), who were engaged in mining without proper technical guidance or safety measures etc. for the workers. These lessees made a strong representation to the then Government in 1976 expressing that though they had given assurance to set up industries to use the granites they were not able to do so far various reasons. They also represented that they should be allowed to export the raw blocks of black granites. Therefore, Government had issued a Government Order dated 15-2-1977 relating to relaxation of the ban of export of raw blocks and provision for set ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... hat case. One of the grounds of attack was that by Chapter IVA of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939, Parliament had merely attempted to regulate the procedure for entry by the States into the business of motor transport in the State, and in the absence of legislation expressly undertaken by the State of Mysore in that behalf, that State was incompetent to enter into the arena of motor transport business to the exclusion of private operators; Sustenance for the submission was sought to be drawn from the language of Art. 19(6) (ii) which provides that nothing in Art. 19(1) (g) shall 'prevent the State from making any law relating to' 'the carrying on by the State, or by a Corporation owned or controlled by the State, of any trade, business, industry or service, whether to the exclusion, complete or partial, of citizens or otherwise'. The argument was that the State or a Corporation owned or controlled by the State could carry on a trade, business, industry or service to the exclusion, complete or partial, of citizens, only if the State made a law relating to it. The argument was repelled by the Court in these words: The plea sought to be founded on the phraseo ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... . The argument that legislative sanction was necessary to enable the State Government to carry on the business of printing and publishing text books was repelled and it was held that no fundamental right of the petitioners who had invoked the jurisdiction of the Court had been infringed. Another of the submissions of the learned counsel was that G.O.Ms No. 1312 dated December 2, 1977 involved a major change of policy, which was a legislative function and therefore beyond the competence of a subordinate legislating body. We do not agree with the submission. Whenever there is a switch over from private sector' to 'public sector' it does not necessarily follow that a change of policy requiring express legislative sanction is involved. It depends on the subject and the statute. For example, if a decision is taken to impose a general and complete ban on private mining of all minor minerals, such a ban may involve the reversal of a major policy and so it may require Legislative sanction. But if a decision is taken to ban private mining of a single minor mineral for the purpose of conserving it, such a ban, if it is otherwise within the bounds of the authority given to the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... er a restriction was direct or only remote or only incidental involved, not so much legal as political, social or economic consideration and that it could not be laid down in no circumstances could the exclusion of competition so as to create a monopoly, either in a State or Commonwealth agency, to be justified. Each case, it was said, must be judged on its own facts and in its own setting of time and circumstances and it might be that in regard to some economic activities and at some stage of social development, prohibition with a view to State monopoly was the only practical and reasonable manner of regulation. The statute with which we are concerned, the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, is aimed, as we have already said more than once, at the conservation and the prudent and discriminating exploitation of minerals. Surely, in the case of a scarce mineral, to permit exploitation by the State or its agency and to prohibit exploitation by private agencies is the most effective method of conservation and prudent exploitation. If you want to conserve for the future, you must prohibit in the present. We have no doubt that the prohibiting of leases in certain cases ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... trusted by Parliament are law made by Parliament within the meaning of Art. 302 of the Constitution. To hold otherwise would be to ignore the complex demands made upon modern legislation which necessitate the plenary legislating body to discharge its legislative function by laying down broad guidelines and standards, to lead and guide as it were, leaving it to the subordinate legislating body to fill up the details by making necessary rules and to amended the rules from time to time to meet unforeseen and unpredictable situations, an within the framework of the power entrusted to it by the plenary legislating body. State of Mysore v. H. Sanjeeviah(2) was cited to us to show that rules did not become part of the statute. This was case where by reference to Sec. 77 of the Mysore Forest Act which declared the effect of the rules, it was held that the rules when made did not become part of the Act. That was apparently because of the specific provisions of Sec. 77 which while declaring that the rules would have the force of law stopped short of declaring that they would become part of the Act. In the absence of any express provision, as now, the ordinary rule as enunciated in Maxwell an ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... he Government to keep applications for the grant of leases and applications for renewal pending for a long time and then to reject them on the basis of Rule 8C notwithstanding the fact that the applications had been made long prior to the date on which Rule 8C came into force. While it is true that such applications should be dealt with within a reasonable time, it cannot on that account be said that the right to have an application disposed of in a reasonable tune clothes an applicant for a lease with a right to have the application disposed of on the basis of the rules in force at the time of the making of the application. None has a vested right to the grant or renewal of a lease and none can claim a vested right to have an application for the grant or renewal of a lease dealt with in a particular way, by applying particular provisions. In the absence of any vested rights in anyone, an application for a lease has necessarily to be dealt with according to the rules in force on the date of the disposal of the application despite the fact that there is a long delay since the making of the application. We are, therefore, unable to accept the submission of the learned counsel that ap ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
|
