(1.) In all these cases, the petitioners are brick-layers. They manufacture bricks and sell them. They were served with notices from the Assistant Mining Officer, Purnea, calling upon them to pay certain amounts of money, as royalty for the period from 1958 to 1964, during which lime they were
(2.) The petitioners challenged all these notices, mainly on the ground that what were being used by them for manufacture of bricks were not minor minerals, and, therefore, the Bihar Minor Mineral Concession Rules, 1964, were not applicable to them and that secondly, the Bihar State Government have no authority in law to impose any royally in respect of minor minerals and, in any case, the Assistant Mining Officer was not authorised under the Act or Rules, to assess or colled royally from the petitioners.
(3.) Article 366 of the Constitution of India defines taxation as follows:--