RAMCHANDRA AGARWAL Vs. ONKARSINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) GRILLE , A.J.C. 1. This second appeal arises out of a suit brought by the malguzar against a tenant for the value of lime stone boulders removed by the latter from fields in his village for the purpose of constructing a well. The plaintiff's suit was dismissed in the trial Court partly on the ground that these boulders were minerals and that all property in minerals vested in Government by virtue of Section 218, C. P. Land Revenue Act, 1917, and that the malguzar cannot claim in respect of them, and in the lower appellate Court entirely on that ground. The plaintiff in this second appeal urges that the finding that the property in the stones lying on the surface of the land vested in Government and that they were minerals is incorrect.

(2.) THE term "mineral" so far as I am aware has not been the subject of legislative or judicial definition in India. The lower appellate Court has based its decision on the absolute scientific definition of the word and has quoted the definitions in Oglivie's and Webster's dictionaries in support of the view that limestones boulders are minerals. That they are minerals in the scientific meaning of the word is undoubted, but it does not follow that the legislature intended the word "minerals" to have this universal meaning when it enacted the C. P. Land Revenue Act. As stated by Lord Watson in Lord Provost of Glasgow v. Fairie (1889) 13 AC 657 : "Mines" and 'minerals' are not definite terms: they are susceptible of limitation or expansion according to the intention with which they are used.

(3.) THIS principle which was originally enunciated in somewhat different terms in Hext v. Gill (1872) 7 Ch. 699 was endorsed by Lord Gorell in North British Ry. v. Budhill Goal and Sandstone Co. (1910) AC 116. Were the strict scientific definition to be adopted, namely, that of Ogilvie : any ingredient in the earth's crust more specifically a body destitute of organisation, but with a definite chemical composition and which naturally exists within the earth or at its surface or of Webster, an inorganic species or substance occurring in nature having a definite chemical composition and usually a distinct crystaline from, the result would be that everything except the purely vegetable surface of the earth would vest in Government. This can never have been the intention of the legislature when the word "mineral" is associated with " mines" and "quarries." The scientific definition must be modified with reference to the commonly accepted meaning of the term which is indicated by its etymology. The words "mineral" and "mine" are derived from a Low Latin word "minare" signifying "ducere, to lead," and the interpretation of the word is "to draw or lead, so, away, or passage underground, a subterraneous duct, course, or passage, whether in search of metals or to destroy fortifications," per Turner, L. J., in Bell v. Wilson (1866) 1 Ch 303.