MUNNA LAL Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This judgment will dispose of Civil Revisions Nos. 988,989 and 1122 of 1977 which contain similar questions of law and fact. The facts in the judgment are being given from Civil Revision No. 989 of 1977.

(2.) The plaintiff is carrying on the business of manufacturing bricks. For that purpose he took from private persons land on lease. It is alleged that on 6th November, 1968, the Government recovered an amount of Rs.312,77 from him as royalty under the provisions of Mines and Minerals (Regulation and Development) Act, 1957. It is further averred that payment was made by mistake by the plaintiff to the State. On 25th March, 1971, a Full Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court decided the civil writ petition entitled Amar Singh Modi Lal v. State of Haryana, AIR 1972 Punj and Har 356, wherein it was held that in the absence of a subsisting agreement or contract between the brick manufacturers and the Government with regard to the minor mineral brick earth, no royalty could be levied by the Government. It is alleged that there was no such agreement between the plaintiff and the Government and, therefore, it was not entitled to charge royalty from the plaintiff. He, therefore, instituted a suit for recovery of Rs.312.77 against the defendant,

(3.) The suit was contested by the defendant who controverted the allegations of the plaintiff. It inter alia pleaded that the Civil Court had no jurisdiction to try the suit, that the suit was not within limitation and that the land taken by the plaintiff vested in the State.