Chandigarh | June 9, 2016: Digging deep into the issue of enhancing the rate of royalty on minor minerals by 50 per cent, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has categorically asserted that the State’s Rules of Business were completely circumvented.

A Division Bench also ruled that the enhanced rate would not be applicable to existing lease deeds with firms granted the rights to mine minor minerals. The developments took place on three petitions filed by Faridabad Gurgaon Minerals and other petitioners.

In one of the petitions before Justice Mahesh Grover and Justice Lisa Gill, the petitioner firm contended it was granted the rights to mine minor minerals on the strength of a lease executed by Haryana after its successful bid in an open auction.

But it was aggrieved by a notification dated June 3, 2005, enhancing the rate of royalty from Rs 24 per tonne to Rs.36 per tonne. The court was told that lessee or the lessees were required to pay royalty on the quantity of minor mineral dispatched from the leased area.

The petitioner firm claimed the lease deed did not contain a stipulation regarding the applicability of any rule envisaging fluctuating rates of royalty. As such, the enhancement subsequent to the execution of lease deed would not affect its rights.

The Bench asserted the State was within its rights to increase royalty. But the state fettered its own rights in the absence of any stipulation in the lease deed; and could not bind the petitioner to terms not contemplated in the lease deed.

The Bench also did not agree with state counsel’s arguments that only matters involving finance, possibly affecting the interest of the state adversely, were to be routed through the Finance Department and other channels suggested by the Rules of Business. “Rule 31, if perused, would allay all illusion to this effect”.

The Bench added: “If such procedures of business are given a go-by in a democratic setup, it may result in unilateral proposals being implemented without evaluation by the stakeholders of the government itself, thus striking at the very root of collective responsibility of the government.

(Source: http://www.tribuneindia.com/)