SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA Vs. AMBALAL KHORA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS appeal, which is from a judgment dated May 8, 1941, of the High Court of Judicature at Patna, arises out of a dispute between the appellant, the Secretary of State for India as representing the Government of Bihar and Orissa and also the East Indian Railway Administration, and the respondents, the owners of a colliery known as the Khas Jheria Colliery, in regard to the compensation payable by the former to the latter for coal, the working of which was prevented or restricted under the Land Acquisition (Mines) Act (No. XVIII of 1885), which will be referred to as " the Act of 1885. "

(2.) IN the long drawn out litigation between the parties a number of questions have teen raised which are no longer at issue. The single question now remaining for decision depends on the construction of an agreement made on June 11, 1913, between the East INdian Railway Company and the predecessor-in-title of the respondents, by which the rights of the parties in respect of the working of coal or of compensation for leaving it unworked were adjusted and defined.

(3.) BY Section 7 it is provided that if the person for the time being entitled to work or get any mines or minerals lying under any land so acquired is desirous of working or getting the same, he shall give the Lieutenant-Governor notice in writing of his intention so to do sixty days before the commencement of working.