UNION OF INDIA Vs. UNITED COLLIERIES LIMITED

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal by special leave directed against the judgment and order of a Division Bench of the Bombay High Court at Nagpur dated October 27, 1980 raises a question as to whether a staff car of the Technical Advisor to the North Chirimiri Collieries owned by respondent No. 1, the United Collieries Limited, which was nationalized under sub-s. (1) of S. 3 of the Coal Mines (Nationalization) Act, 1973 w.e.f. May, 1, 1973, was or was not covered by the definition of the term 'mine' in S. 2(h)(xii) and therefore stood transferred to and became vested in, the Central Government free from all encumbrances.

(2.) It is common ground that the Ambassador car No. MHX 3771 was purchased by Messrs. Karamchand Thapar and Bros. (Coal Sales) Ltd., Delhi in the year 1966 and was transferred to respondent No. 1, United Collieries. Limited, the owners in relation to the North Chirimiri Collieries, and it was therefore the owner of the said vehicle. On and from the appointed day i.e. May 1, 1973, the rights, title and interest of the owners in relation to the coal mines specified in the Schedule stood transferred to, and became vested absolutely in, the Central Government free from all encumbrances, under sub-s. (1) of S. 3 of the Act. It is also not in dispute that the vehicle had been placed at the disposal of one D.D. Diddi, the Technical Advisor to the North Chirimiri Collieries to be used as his staff car. Immediately after the nationalization of the coal mines, the Deputy Custodian General, Coal Mines Authority Limited, Nagpur addressed a letter dated May 9, 1973 to the aforesaid D.D. Diddi requiring him to hand over the staff car to the Custodian. In his reply dated May 25, 1973, he asserted that although the said car belonged to respondent No. 1 and had been allotted to him for use as a staff car, it was not used exclusively for the North Chirimiri Collieries but used by him for looking after multifarious activities of the Thapar Group of Industries which was a composite concern with business other than coal mining. It is not necessary for us to refer to the long correspondend that ensued between the parties.

(3.) Eventually, the Managing Director, Western Division, Coal Mines Authority Ltd., Nagpur addressed letters dated August 9, 1973 both to respondent No. 1 and the erstwhile Technical Advisor stating that on coming into force of the Act the right, title and interest of the North Chirimiri Collieries vested in the Central Government under sub-s. (1) of S. 3 of the Act and therefore the car which was an asset belonging to the mine vested in the Central Government. It further stated that if they failed to hand over possession of the car, they would be liable to prosecution under the Act. Thereupon respondent No. 1, United Collieries Limited, the owners of the coal mine, and the aforesaid D.D. Diddi, the erstwhile Technical Advisor of the North Chirimiri Collieries, filed a petition under Art. 226 of the Constitution before the Nagpur Bench of the High Court. The High Court held that the question as to whether the staff car should be treated as belonging to the owner of a mine as part of the mine itself raised disputed questions of fact relating to its user which would have to be determined on the basis of evidence. In taking that view, the High Court purported to rely upon the decision of this Court in New Satgram Engineering Works v. Union of India (1980) 4 SCC 570 and left the parties to have their rights adjudicated in a civil suit. It accordingly discharged the rule directing respondent No. 1 to establish its claim by filing a civil suit with a direction that in the event of such a suit being filed, the Civil Court will consider the making of an appropriate order for the grant of interim relief on condition of furnishing of adequate, security keeping in view that the Coal Mines Authority had been deprived of the staff car for all these years.