SDANGYOO L. DKHAR Vs. STATE OF MEGHALAYA AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner, while asserting that he is appointed as an "Agent" by the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council ('the KHADC' or 'the Council' hereafter) for setting up and operating the so called "KHADC's Mineral Transport Challan Check Point/Royalty Check", has filed this writ petition on the grievance that the officers of the Government of Meghalaya were illegally interfering with the Check Points managed by him; and has sought the reliefs in the following terms: - -

(2.) The petitioner has referred to paragraph 9 of the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution of India, governing the grant of licenses and leases for the purpose of prospecting for, or extracting of, minerals; and has submitted that thereunder, the Government of State and the District Council of the area in question are sharing the royalty on the minerals extracted and removed. The petitioner has pointed out that such sharing of royalty between the Government and the KHADC had earlier been in the ratio of 60:40 and at present is in the ratio of 75:25 from the royalty collected within the jurisdiction of the KHADC. According to the petitioner, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) pointed out in the report dated 31.03.2013 that the State Government had failed to set up a mechanism to determine the mineral extracted and as a result, as between the years 2008 -09 to 2012 -13, there were huge losses, including short realization of revenue to the tune of Rs. 81.40 crores, due to the failure of the Director of Mineral Resources to periodically assess the performance of the check gates that led to leakage of revenue at many check points and weighbridges. The petitioner has also pointed out that the CAG had recommended to the State Government for improvement and overall restructuring of the management of the check gates.

(3.) The petitioner has further averred that in view of massive leakage of royalty/revenue coupled with illegal transportation of extracted coal without payment of royalty as well as diversion of royalty to the Jaintia Hills District and Garo Hills District by the vehicles carrying the extracted coal from its jurisdiction, the KHADC, being one of the key beneficiary of the collection of royalty under paragraph 9 of the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution of India, issued a Public Notice dated 10.12.2015, inviting the interested persons for being appointed as its "Agents" for setting up and operating the royalty challan checkpoints named as: "KHADC's Mineral Transport Challan Checkpoint/Royalty Check" at the designate points and marching road at national highway along with the Council's border for a period of three years, so as to verify the authenticity of the mineral transport challan/royalty challan carried by the coal laden trucks.