9911796707
TMI Blog1976 (3) TMI 241X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... about 1970 to sell by auction the right to remove the sand, gravel and bajris deposited on the appellant's lands. On October 13, 1970 the appellant made an application to the Officer in-charge, Mines, Allahabad, objecting to the proposed auction on the ground that the Government had no right to deal with his property in a manner detrimental to his title. On February 18, 1971 the Department of Mines passed an order directing the disposal of the deposits by an auction-sale. In October, 1971 the appellant filed a writ petition under article 226 of the Constitution in the Allahabad High Court asking that the aforesaid order of the State Government be quashed and that the State Government be restrained from bringing the fluvial deposits to sale by auction or otherwise. On behalf of the respondents, the Naib Tehsildar (Mines) Allahabad, filed a counter-affidavit stating that the appellant had no right of any kind to utilise the deposits left by the flood waters on his land, that the State Government had sold the deposits by auction from 1965 to 1969 to which the appellant had raised no objection, that the deposits of sand, gravel, bajris etc. were 'minor minerals' to whic ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ri rights were not yet abolished, as the 1951 Act was not extended to the areas in which those lands were situated. Mr. Goel appearing on behalf of the appellant repeated the same contention and argued that in respect of those lands to which the Act of 1951 did not apply, the Zamindar's right to mines and minerals remained unaffected, and therefore the Government had no right to the deposits left on those lands by the waters of the receding river, even on the assumption that the deposits were 'minor minerals'. We cannot accede to this contention for the simple reason that though the writ petition contained an averment in terms of the contention no argument whatsoever was made in the High Court, either before the single Judge or before the Division Bench, that some of the lands being still Zamindari lands the right to mines and minerals which the Zamindars originally had did not cease and therefore the Government had no right to the mines and minerals on such lands. Apart from this the contention urged by Mr. Goel in regard to a part of the property involved in the writ petition, raises at best a dispute between the Zamindar and the Government which the appellant has no ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ules, Rule 3 must come into full play with the result that no mining operation in respect of the deposits can be undertaken except under and in accordance with the terms and conditions of a lease or permit granted by the Government under the Rules of 1963. We are concerned in this appeal with deposits in the nature of ordinary sand other than sand used for prescribed purposes, gravel, building stones and bajris. These fall squarely within the above-quoted provisions of the Act of 1957 and the Rules of 1963 and are therefore minor minerals. Accordingly, the appellant cannot undertake any mining operation, even on the lands now belonging to him for the purpose of winning these minor minerals except under a lease or permit granted by the State Government. The right of the former Zamindars to mines and minerals was extinguished by the Act of 1951 and became vested in the State Government. So long as the proprietary right to the lands was vested in the Zamindar he was entitled to mines and minerals. With the abolition of Zamindari by the 1951 Act, that right has passed on not to the appellant but to the State Government. The appellant's writ petition filed to restrain the State Gove ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... public to remove the sand as against the State, which owns the bed of the stream. In the High Court, reliance appears to have been placed by the appellant on a passage in Halsbury's Laws of England, 3rd Ed., Vol. 39, paragraph 801 (p. 568) where it is stated that gravel, stones and sand, even when washed up by the seas on the foreshore are part of the freehold and belong to the owner of the foreshore who may deal with them as he pleases. This passage is based upon the decision in Blewett v. Tregonning (1835) 3 Adolphus and Ellis' Reports 554, where the defendant was a rank trespasser who pleaded a custom entitling him to take the sand blown by the wind on to a land situated on the foreshore. The Court negatived the plea of custom both on the ground that it was not established and on the ground that if the custom were to receive a legal recognition it would place the whole soil at the mercy of any person claiming under the so-called custom. Besides, there is no parallel between that case and our case because here, the 'minor minerals' while under the river water belonged to the State and the statute answers the question whether the natural action of the flooding r ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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