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TMI Blog2017 (1) TMI 1711X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... evant legal provisions and the Notification dated 26.12.2001 in particular in holding that the enhanced rates, as fixed by the Notification dated 24.03.2001, would be payable for the minerals involved, as extracted from the two areas, mentioned in the Notification dated 26.12.2001 on and from that date. Appeal allowed - decided in favor of appellant. - Civil Appeal No. ... of 2017 (Arising out of SLP (Civil) No. 3652 of 2010) and Civil Appeal No. ... of 2017 (Arising out of SLP (Civil) No. 3653 of 2010) - - - Dated:- 31-1-2017 - Arun Mishra And Amitava Roy, JJ. For the Appellant : Gopal Singh, Shivam Singh and Advitiya Awasthi, Advs. For the Respondent : Nagendra Rai, Sr. Adv., Sunil Kumar, Santosh Mishra, Alok Kumar, Sarla Chandra, Prerna Singh, Prashant Kumar, Priya Ranjan Roi and T. Mahipal, Advs. JUDGMENT Amitava Roy, J. 1. Leave Granted. 2. Vexed by the determination thereby limiting the application of the Notification SS-2/MM-11/2001-2361.../M dated 26.12.2001 to the date of issuance thereof, for the purpose of realizing royalty in respect of the minerals mentioned therein @ ₹ 100/- per cubic meter, otherwise prescribed by the Notifi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... as herein below: 26. Rent/royalty and assessment - (1) When a lease is granted or renewed: (a) Dead rent shall be charged at the rates specified in Schedule I; (b) Royalty shall be charged at the rates specified in Schedule II; and (c) Surface rent shall be charged at the rate specified by the Collector from time to time for the area occupied or used by the lessee. (2) On and from the date of commencement of these rules, the provisions of Sub-rule (1) shall also apply to the leases granted or renewed prior to the date of such commencement and subsisting on such date. (3) If the lease permits the working of more than one Mineral in the same area, the Collector may charge separate dead rent in respect of each Mineral: Provided that the lessee shall be liable to pay the dead rent or royalty in respect of each Mineral, whichever be higher in amount. (4) Notwithstanding any thing contained in any instrument of lease the lessee shall pay rent/royalty in respect of any minor mineral own, extracted and removed at the rate specified from time to time in Schedules I and II. (5) The State Government may, by notification in the official Gazette, amend the first and s ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... he minerals concerned was sought to be realized by the State Government w.e.f. 24.03.2001, the Respondents separately assailed the demand notices unsuccessfully before the Departmental Appellate Authority, whereafter they laid the impeachment thereto before the High Court Under Article 226 of the Constitution of India. 9. The learned Single Judge dismissed the impugnment observing that once the areas were identified by the Notification dated 26.12.2001, the demand would relate back to 01.04.2001. 10. The Respondents, as a consequence, carried the challenge in appeal to the Division Bench, which upheld the same. 11. As the impugned verdict would reveal, the Division Bench noticed that the Respondents had not challenged the validity of the notification dated 24.03.2001 and had confined their demurral only to the retrospective application thereof, pursuant to the Notification dated 26.12.2001. The Division Bench held the view that once the rate of royalty had been enhanced, as effected by the Notification dated 24.03.2001, it was incumbent on the part of the concerned authorities also to notify the relevant areas therewith, so as to enable the lessees to pass on the liability ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... re used for making chips and extracted by the Respondents' firm from the basin of the Pandai river, is not under assailment by them. They have not questioned as well the enforcement of this notification w.e.f. 01.04.2001. As claimed by them, in response to the demand notices thereafter, they have made part payments of the royalty claimed. They have unequivocally averred that they deal in boulder, gravel, shingle, which are used for making chips. 15. The footnote to the Notification dated 24.03.2001, in clear terms, proclaims that the areas of the two categories of the minerals, corresponding to Sl. Nos. 1 and 2 (boulder, gravel, shingle, which are used for making chips) once identified, would be notified separately as per the Rules. Eventually, such areas being located in the Districts of Rohtas and Bettiah, having been identified by the Expert Committee constituted for the purpose, the Notification dated 26.12.2001 followed. A plain reading of this Notification would demonstrate, in unambiguous terms, that it is in continuation of the one dated 24.03.2001 fixing the rate of royalty at ₹ 100 per cubic meter for boulder, gravel, shingle, from which chips is prepared. Th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e parent statute and unless authorized by it, is not empowered to make any law or provision with retrospective effect, impairing the already vested rights of those likely to be adversely affected thereby. In our mind, these pronouncements, in the singular facts of the case are of no avail to the Respondents having regard in particular to the clarificatory nature of the Notification dated 26.12.2001. 19. In Commissioner of Income Tax-I, Ahmedabad v. Gold Coin Health Food Pvt. Ltd. (2008) 9 SCC 622, a three-Judge Bench of this Court, while dwelling on the sweep of a clarificatory or declaratory legal provision, relied on the following extract from the celebrated treatise Principles of Statutory Interpretation , 11th Edition 2008 by Justice G.P. Singh: The presumption against retrospective operation is not applicable to declaratory statutes. As stated in Craies and approved by the Supreme Court: For modern purposes a declaratory Act may be defined as an Act to remove doubts existing as to the common law, or the meaning or effect of any Statute. Such acts are usually held to be retrospective.... ...An explanatory Act is generally passed to supply an obvious omission or to cle ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... oint reading of Rule 26 and the two Notifications, the enhanced rate of royalty at ₹ 100/- per cubic meter for boulder, gravel and shingle, which are used or are capable of being used for making chips would be realizable w.e.f. 01.04.2001 and axiomatically thus, the Respondents are liable to discharge the demand, therefor, as raised in terms thereof. The Respondents were fully aware of the amended rate of ₹ 100/- per cubic metre for the minerals extracted by them and thus the reasoning of the High Court that they might not have passed on the burden to their purchasers is without any factual basis and being clearly speculative is untenable. The High Court, in our view, had clearly erred in interpreting the relevant legal provisions and the Notification dated 26.12.2001 in particular in holding that the enhanced rates, as fixed by the Notification dated 24.03.2001, would be payable for the minerals involved, as extracted from the two areas, mentioned in the Notification dated 26.12.2001 on and from that date. The determination made by the High Court is thus indefensible and consequently, the impugned decision is hereby set aside. 22. The appeals are thus allowed. No co ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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