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TMI Blog1957 (11) TMI 30X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... and then sell them. Opposite Party No. 2 Chunnilal is a contractor appointed by the State of Rajasthan for collecting royalty by virtue of a contract taken by him at a public auction, the period of the contract being from the 1st April, 1957 to the 31st March, 1958. This contract was given in accordance with the terms and conditions mentioned in the notification published in the Rajasthan Rajpatra dated the 7th March, 1957, at pp. 955-56 thereof. Item No. 5 of this notification provides in effect that a royalty at the rate of ₹ 12/- per 100/ cubic feet will be charged on stone for making chips and ballast at the following places. namely, Manpura, Merda. Hadmala, Phootwad and Chittor, and the area within a radius of 10 miles from Chittor, while a royalty at the rate of one anna per maund will be charged on stone for burning lime. It is common ground that this notification has been issued under the Rajasthan Rules which came into force on the 11th June, 1955. The case of the petitioners is that the said Rules are ultra vires and void because the Rajasthan Government has no authority to make these rules, and it is only the Central Government that can m ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... provisions of List I with respect to regulation and development under the control of the Union. In other words, the legislative authority of the State with respect to the regulation of mines and mineral development is subject to such laws as may have been made by the Parliament on the ground that such regulation and development should be under the control of the Union as being expedient in the public interest. 5. This brings us to the Mines and Minerals Act. Section 2 of that Act provides that it is expedient in the public interest that the Central Government should take under its control the regulation of mines and oil-fields and the developments of minerals to the extent hereinafter provided. Section 5 then provides that the Central Government may by notification in the official gazette make rules for regulating the grant of mining leases or for prohibiting the grant of such leases in respect of any mineral or in any area. Section 8 is the next important section and it lays down that the Central Government may, by notification in the official Gazette, direct that any power exercisable under this Act shall be exercised, subject to conditions if any, as m ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... We hold accordingly. 7. Now, before we proceed further, we should like to say a word about the meaning of the expression royalty . The question came before a Division Bench to which one of us was a party in Bherulal v. State of Rajasthan: AIR 1956 Raj 161 (A). There relying on Wharton's Law Lexicon, it was held that 'royalty' was in a case like the present a payment to the owner of minerals for the right of working the same, and that the charging was based on produce. It was also held that this charge has nothing to do with the question where the purchaser may be taking the mineral or to whom he is going: to sell it, whether at the place where the mine is situated or at some other place hundreds of miles away. In other words, 'royalty' is a payment made to an owner for the right to exploit his property. It is, therefore, indisputable that it would be open to the State as being the owner of the minerals to charge a royalty whether directly by itself or through a contractor. It further seems to us that a royalty may be charged as so much per weight or on the value of the produce. 8. The next contention on behalf of the petition ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... because if that had been done, that would be clearly open to the charge of unequal treatment. The objective of the Schedule clearly is to levy different rates of royalty on different types of goods though in doing so we are prepared to concede that it is not quite easy to make the classification logically watertight; but we have no doubt that people who are dealing with the industry should have really no difficulty in understanding the basis on which the distinction is based. We also wish to call attention in this connection to two other circumstances: firstly, that each kind of the goods which is mentioned in the Schedule even though some of which may be worked in the same mine has a definite market value, and secondly, that that value is different from one type of goods to another. In this state of circumstances, we are unable to agree with the contention of learned counsel for the petitioners that different rates of royalty are levied by the contractor for the same goods, and that this difference is based on the different uses to which the goods are to be put. As we look at the whole matter, the difference in the rates of royalty is essentially based not on the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e matter there as the controversy before us does not depend upon something connoted by the use of that expression but upon the levy of royalty on the stone from which chips and ballast are produced. 11. It was also argued before us on behalf of the State that the quality of stone used in producing chips is not the same as that of the building stone or of the masonry stone, and that jt is a superior one and further that the stone used for manufacturing chips was of various colours such as yellow, green or pink, and it is not found in the same quarries from which masonry or building stone is quarried. On the other hand, this position is stoutly denied on behalf of the petitioners, and it was (Contended before us that there are no separate quarries for building stones as for, chips and ballast, and that the same quarries produce stones which may be of rectangular shape or of some other regular dimensions and they also produce stones of irregular shapes which are used for the purpose of manufacturing chips and ballast. We may point out that these are matters of fact into which we do not wish to and cannot possibly enter for the purpose of deciding the present ..... 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