- (1.) This order shall dispose of a bunch of three regular second appeals whereby the State of Punjab, raises the similar question of law. The question of law raised by the appellant-State is as under:- Whether brick earth which belongs to the private owners, which is a minor mineral would vest in the appellant-State. If so, whether the appellant-State could demand royalty from the plaintiff respondent. Brief facts may first be noticed. The plaintiff respondent filed a suit for permanent injunction restraining the appellant-State from assessing, levying or recovering the royalty on the brick earth and a declaration was sought that the notice raising the demand as royalty on the brick earth be declared void and illegal. The plaintiff-respondents have been running brick kiln which has been installed either in their own land or the land taken by them on lease from private owners. The plea raised by the plaintiff respondent before the Courts below was that the land which supply the brick earth was owned by them and did not belong to the appellant-State and, therefore, it had no jurisdiction to asses any royalty on the brick earth. Therefore, a prayer was made to restrain the appellant-State from effecting any recovery of the amount in lieu of digging brick earth from their own land or the leased land from the private owners.
(2.) The appellant-State contested the suit on two grounds. Firstly, it was urged that the jurisdiction of the Civil Court is barred by the provisions of Section 158 of the Punjab Land Revenue Act, 1887. It was also submitted that the brick earth is a minor mineral which vest in the appellant-State and it has every right to charge royalty from its user.
(3.) The trial Court as well as the Lower Appellate Court returned the finding that brick earth is a minor mineral as has been declared by Notification issued by the appellant-State on 01.06.1968 (Ex.D-1). The aforesaid Notification has been held to be invalid by Hon'ble the Supreme Court in the case of M/s Banarsi Dass Chadha and brothers v. Lt. Governor, Delhi Administration, 1978 4 SCC 11.;