TATA STEEL LIMITED Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard, Mr. Abhishek Manu Singhvi, learned Sr. Counsel for Tata Steel Limited, Mr. Ajit Kumar, learned Advocate General for the State of Jharkhand and Mr. Rajiv Sinha, learned Assistant Solicitor General of India, for the Union of India.

(2.) In all these writ applications the petitioner Tata Steel Limited, has challenged the vires of Rules 64-B and 64-C of the Mineral Concession Rules, 1960, praying for the following reliefs:-

(3.) The petitioner Tata Steel limited is a Company incorporated under the Companies Act and is engaged in manufacture of iron and steel having its steel plant at Jamshedpur, in the State of Jharkhand. The petitioner is having mining lease over two collieries in the Districts of Ramgarh and Dhanbad. In the District of Ramgarh the collieries of the Tata Steel are "West Bokaro Colliery" whereas in the District of Dhanbad, it is having "Jharia group of collieries". Admittedly both these group of collieries are the captive collieries of the Tata Steel limited, meaning thereby, that the coal extracted in these collieries are used after its necessary washing and beneficiation only for the purpose of the manufacture of steel at its steel plant at Jamshedpur, whereas the middlings, tailings, rejects, de-shale etc., generated during the washing process, are partly used as fuel in the petitioner's own power plants situated within some of the collieries and partly sold to the consumer after obtaining necessary permission from the concerned authorities. It may be stated that the coal extracted directly from the mines are known as run-of-mines coal, or ROM coal, and we are informed that ROM coal may either be Washery Grade-IV Coal, or any of the higher grades, up to Steel Grade. We are also informed that in all the collieries of the petitioner Tata Steal Limited, the ROM coal extracted directly from the colliery are the Washery Grade-IV Coal and by the process of washing they are made Washery Grade-III Coal, Washery Grade-II Coal, Washery Grade-I Coal, Steel Grade-1I Coal, and ultimately Steel Grade-1 Coal. Steel Grade coal are used in the manufacture process of iron and steel. In the process of washing the middlings, tailings and rejects are also produced, which are used by the petitioner in its power plants situated in the collieries, and some of them are also sold to end users after obtaining permission from the concerned authority. The process of extracting coal from the mines creates the liability of making the payment of royalty to the State in view of Section 9 of the Mines and Mineral (Development and Regulation) Act , 1957 (hereinafter referred to as the " MMDR Act ") and Rules 64-B and 64-C of the Mineral Concession Rules, 1960. Section 9 of the MMDR Act reads as follows:-