SC agrees to set up bench to hear pleason recovery of royalty, tax on minerals

 

 

 

THE Supreme Court on Wednesday said it will set up a benchtohearsubsequentpleas of mineral-rich states like Jharkhand seeking to recover royalty and tax dues on mineral rights and mineral-bearing lands worth thousands of croreofrupeesfromtheCentre and mining firms. On July 25, a nine-judge bench headed by ChiefJustice D Y Chandrachud, in a majority 8:1 verdict, had ruled that the legislative power to taxmineral rights vests in states and not Parliament. In a subsequent order on August 14, the top court clarified that the judgement will not have prospective effect and permitted mineral-rich states recover from the Centre and mining firms the royalty and tax dues on mineralrights and mineral-bearing lands worth thousands of crore of rupees since April 1, 2005 over a period of 12 years.

 

OnWednesday, senioradvocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for Jharkhand, urged the bench comprising the CJI and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra to allocate the pleas, relating to recovery of dues and the legal impediments in realising them, to a bench. “This is regarding subsequent steps after the ninejudgebenchjudgement.Allthematters are nowputtogether,”the senior lawyer said. Senior lawyer AbhishekSinghvi, appearing for someprivatemining firms, saidnowthestateswantedrealisationof money. “I will assign (the bench), preferably one of the judges, who was with us on the (Constitution) bench to hear it,”the CJI said.