K.P.CHANDRAMOHAN Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) As the issue involved in all these appeals is the same, they are taken up together for consideration and disposed by this common judgment.

(2.) W.A.No.665 of 2017 impugns the judgment dtd. 14/12/2016 of a learned Single Judge in W.P.(C).No.25006 of 2015. The petitioners in the said writ petition were owners of property in Kozhikode district in which they were carrying on granite operations. By virtue of the judgment of the Supreme Court in Thresiamma Jacob v. Geologist - [2013 (3) KLT 275 (SC)] persons in ownership of land in the Malabar region of Kerala State, had to be treated as owners of the land as well as the sub-soil, and consequently, unless there was an enactment vesting the ownership of the sub-soil/mineral wealth in the State of Kerala, there could be no demand of royalty from the said landowners when they exploited the mineral wealth from their own lands. It was therefore their case in the writ petition that the provisions of Rule 2 to 9, 11, 12, 20 and 49 of the Kerala Minor Mineral Concession Rules, 2015 that stipulated a payment of royalty as a precondition for issuance of movement permits, and made Environmental Clearance a mandatory condition for grant of mining permits, had to be read down in the light of the declaration of law by the Supreme Court in Thresiamma Jacob [supra]. The writ petition was however dismissed by a learned Single Judge who held that mere ownership over the land/sub-soil did not mean that the State could not impose royalty as a precondition for grant of movement permits and other facilities which formed part of the regulation of minor minerals by the State, as authorized under the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 read with the Kerala Minor Mineral Concession Rules, 2015. It was also clarified by the learned Single Judge that the quarrying activities could not be done without obtaining an Environmental Clearance.

(3.) During the pendency of the appeal, the State Legislature enacted the Kerala Minerals (Vesting of Rights) Act, 2021 [hereinafter referred to as the "2021 Act"] vesting all rights in the minerals in the soil and sub-soil of all lands of whatsoever ownership or tenure in the Malabar region, in the State of Kerala. The Act was given operation with effect from 30/12/2019, the date on which the Ordinance in that regard was first promulgated. The validity of the said enactment had been challenged through various writ petitions, which came to be dismissed by another learned Single Judge through a judgment dtd. 19/12/2025 in W.P.(C).No.43302 of 2024 and connected cases, wherein the learned Single Judge considered the decisions of the Supreme Court in Mineral Area Development Authority and another v. Steel Authority of India and another - [(2024) 10 SCC 1] and Mineral Area Development Authority and another v. Steel Authority of India and another - [(2024) 10 SCC 257] that clarified that royalty is not a tax and further, that royalty is always payable to the owner of the property (minerals) and cannot be demanded by persons other than the owner of the minerals concerned. The Writ Appeals preferred against the said judgment of the learned Single Judge by the writ petitioners [W.A.Nos.3218 of 2025 and 590 of 2026] as well as by the State [W.A.Nos.440 of 2026, 587 of 2026 and 1263 of 2026] are also posted before us for hearing and considered by us in this judgment.