JUDGMENT JASWANT SINGH, J.:— This batch of 20 Civil Appeals Nos. 705 to 724 of 1971 by certificate under Article 133 (1) (a) of the Constitution which are directed against the common judgment dated September 3, 1970, of the High Court of Judicature at Patna and raise important questions relating mainly to interpretation and scope of Section 30-A of the Mines and Minerals (Regulation and Development) Act, 1957 (Act 67 of 1957) (hereinafter referred to as the 1957 Act), shall be disposed of by this judgment. 2. Circumstances leading to these appeals in so far as they would be helpful in appreciating the points involved are : Prior to October 25, 1949, proprietors of big estates like Rajas of Ramgarh and Jharia granted, in exercise of their untrammelled discretion, mining leases of huge tracts of land in the districts of Hazaribagh, Dhanbad, and Singhbhum to various persons for winning and extracting coal for a period of 999 years in lieu of payment of premiums and fixed annual rental. There was in these leases either no stipulation for payment of royalty or the royalty stipulated for was very low. Except in a few cases, the lessees of these mining leases did not work the mines themselves and granted sub-leases thereof more or less on similar terms. 3. On September 8, 1948, the Central Legislature passed the Mines and Minerals (Regulation and Development) Act, 1948 (Act No. 53 of 1948) (hereinafter referred to as the 1948 Act) under Entry 36 of List I of Seventh Schedule to the Government of India Act, 1935. The Act, as declared in its Preamble, was enacted as it was considered expedient in public interest to provide inter alia for the regulation of mines and for the development of minerals. Sub-section (1) of Section 4 of the Act prohibited the grant after the commencement of the Act of any mining lease otherwise than in accordance with the rules made under the Act. Sub section (2) of Section 4 of the Act provided that any mining lease granted contrary to sub-section (1) would be void and of no effect. Section 5 of the Act empowered the Central Government to make rules for regulating the grant of mining leases or for prohibiting the grant of such leases in respect of any mineral or in any area. Section 5 of the Act empowered the Central Government to make rules for regulating the grant of mining leases or for prohibiting the grant of such leases in respect of any mineral or in any area. Section 7 of the Act empowered the Central Government to make rules for the purpose of modifying or altering the terms and conditions of any existing mining lease i.e. any mining lease granted prior to the commencement of the Act, so as to bring such lease into conformity with the rules made under Section 5. In exercise of the powers conferred on it by Section 5 of the Act, the Central Government made the Mineral Concession Rules, 1949. Both the 1948 Act and the Mineral Concession Rules, 1949, came into force on October 25, 1949. 4. Rule 41 of the Mineral Concession Rules which related to the conditions of mining leases made it compulsory for every mining lease to include a condition enjoining the lessee to pay royalty on the minerals at the rate specified in the First Schedule to the Rules which in case of coal was 5% of the F. O. R. price. 5. The 1948 Act was extended to Chhota Nagpur by a notification dated January 16, 1950, issued under Section 92 of the Government of India Act, 1935. 6. The provisions of the Mineral Concession Rules, 1949, did not apply to leases or sub-leases granted anterior to October 25, 1949. 7. The Constitution of India came into force on January 26, 1950. Articles 246 and 254 of the Constitution which relate to the distribution of legislative powers and Entry 54 of List I (Union List) and Entry 23 of List II (State List) of the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution read thus :- "Article 246. (1) Notwithstanding anything in clauses (2) and (3), Parliament has exclusive power to make laws with respect to any of the matters enumerated in List I in the Seventh Schedule. (2) Notwithstanding anything in Clause (3), Parliament, and, subject to clause (1), the Legislature of any State also, have power to make laws with respect to any of the matters enumerated in list III in the Seventh Schedule. (2) Notwithstanding anything in Clause (3), Parliament, and, subject to clause (1), the Legislature of any State also, have power to make laws with respect to any of the matters enumerated in list III in the Seventh Schedule. (3) Subject to clauses (1) and (2), the Legislature of any State has exclusive power to make laws for such State or any part thereof with respect to any of the matters enumerated in List II in the Seventh Schedule. (4) Parliament has power to make laws with respect to any matter for any part of the territory of India not included in a State notwithstanding that such matter is a matter enumerated in the State List." "Article 254. (1) If any provision of a law made by the Legislature of a State is repugnant to any provision of a law made by Parliament which Parliament is competent to enact, or to any provision of an existing law with respect to one of the matters enumerated in the concurrent List, then, subject to the provisions of clause (2), the law made by Parliament, whether passed before or after the law made by the legislature of such State or, as the case may be, the existing law, shall prevail and the law made by the Legislature of the State shall, to the extent of the repugnancy, be void. (2) Where a law made by the Legislature of a State with respect to one of the matters enumerated in the Concurrent List contains any provision repugnant to the provisions of an earlier law made by Parliament or an existing law with respect to that matter, then, the law so made by the Legislature of such State shall, if it has been reserved for the consideration of the President and has received his assent, prevail in that State : Provided that nothing in this clause shall prevent Parliament from enacting at any time any law with respect to the same matter including a law adding to, amending, varying or repealing the law so made by the Legislature of the State." "Entry 54 of List I (Union List), Regulation of mines and mineral development to the extent to which such regulation and development under the control of the Union is declared by Parliament by law to be expedient in the public interest." "Entry 23 of List II (State List). Regulation of mines and mineral development subject to the provisions of List I with respect to regulation and development under the control of the Union." 8. The constitution was followed by the Bihar Land Reforms Act, 1950 (Act XXX of 1950) (hereinafter referred to as the Bihar Land Reforms Act) which though passed on September 11, 1950, came into force on September 25, 1950. This legislation, as evident from its preamble, was enacted as it was considered expedient to provide for transference to the State of the interests of proprietors and tenure-holders in land and of mortgagees and lessees of such interests including interest in mines and minerals. On the publication of notifications under Sections 3 and 3-A of the Bihar Land Reforms Act, the estates or tenures of proprietors or tenure-holders as also the intermediary interests of all intermediaries passed to and became vested in the State. Section 4 of the Bihar Land Reforms Act declared the consequences flowing from the vesting of the estate or tenure in the State. Clause (a) of Section 4 (1) provided that on publication of the aforesaid notifications, such estate or tenure, including the interests of the proprietor of tenure-holder in any building etc., in trees etc., as also his interest in all sub-soil including any rights in mines and minerals, whether discovered, or undiscovered, or whether being worded or not, inclusive of such rights of a lessee of mines and minerals comprised in such estate or tenure other than the interests of raiyats or under raiyats shall, with effect from the date of vesting, vest absolutely in the State free from all encumbrances and such proprietor or tenure-holder shall cease to have any interests in such estate or tenure other than the interests expressly saved by or under the provisions of the Act. Thus the interest of the proprietor or tenure-holder including his rights in mines and minerals, inclusive of rights of a lessee of mines and minerals came to an end and vested absolutely in the State. Having once so vested, certain rights were conferred by statute on the proprietors and tenure-holders and the lessees. Thus the interest of the proprietor or tenure-holder including his rights in mines and minerals, inclusive of rights of a lessee of mines and minerals came to an end and vested absolutely in the State. Having once so vested, certain rights were conferred by statute on the proprietors and tenure-holders and the lessees. Section 9 of the Bihar Land Reforms Act provided that mines which were in operation at the commencement of the Act and were being worked directly by the intermediary shall be deemed to have been leased by the State Government to the intermediary and he would be entitled to retain possession of those mines as a lessee thereof. The lease by the State Government to the intermediary, according to sub-section (2) of Section 9 was to have such terms and conditions as might be agreed upon between the State Government and the intermediary or in the absence of such agreement, as might be settled by the Mines Tribunal appointed under Section 12 of the Act provided that all such terms and conditions had to be in accordance with the provisions of any Central Act for the time being in force regulating the grant of new mining leases. According to the proviso, such terms and conditions were to be in accordance with the provisions of the 1948 Act which was in force at the time the estate vested in the State of Bihar. The mines in the present cases, it may be mentioned, were not worked by the intermediary lessees. Section 10 of the Bihar Land Reforms Act which dealt with leases of mines and minerals which subsisted on the date immediately preceding the date of vesting of the estate or tenure provided : "10. Subsisting leases of mines and minerals - (1) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, where immediately before the date of vesting of the estate or tenure there is a subsisting lease of mines or minerals comprised in the estate or tenure or any part thereof, the whole or that part of the estate or tenure comprised in such lease shall, with effect from the date of vesting, be deemed to have been leased by the State Government to the holder of the said subsisting lease for the remainder of the term of that lease, and such holder shall be entitled to retain possession of the leasehold property. (2) The terms and conditions of the said lease by the State Government shall mutatis mutandis be the same as the terms and conditions of the subsisting lease referred to in sub-section (1), but with the additional condition that, if in the opinion of the State Government that holder of the lease had not, before the date of the commencement of this Act, done any prospecting or development work, the State Government shall be entitled at any time before the expiry of one year from the said date to determine the lease by giving three months notice in writing : Provided that nothing in this sub-section shall be deemed to prevent any modifications being made in the terms and conditions of the said lease in accordance with the provision of any Central Act for the time being in force regulating the modification of existing mining leases. (3) The holder of any such lease of mines and minerals as is referred to in sub-section (1) shall not be entitled to claim any damages from the outgoing proprietor or tenure-holder on the ground that the terms of the lease executed by such proprietor or tenure-holder in respect of the said mines and minerals have become incapable of fulfilment by the operation of this Act." 9. The consequence of the operation of Section 4 (1) (a) and 10 (1) of the Bihar Land Reforms Act as held by this Court in Bihar Mines Ltd. v. Union of India, (1967) 1 SCR 707 and reiterated in Chhatu Ram Horil Ram Private Ltd. v. State of Bihar, (1968) 2 SCR 881 was not that the old original contractual leases of mines and minerals comprised in the estate and subsisting on the date of vesting continued with the Government substituted as lessor in place of original lessor but was that the original contractual leases came to an end on the date of vesting as a result of Section 4 (1) (a) of the Act and for the remainder of the terms of those leases, fresh statutory leases in favour of the lessees came into being under Section 10 (1) of the Act. 10. All the estates of Jharia Rajya within which the leases in question fell became vested in the State of Bihar on November 3, 1951. 10. All the estates of Jharia Rajya within which the leases in question fell became vested in the State of Bihar on November 3, 1951. Thenceforth i.e. fromNovember 3, 1951, the subsisting leases came to be treated as new statutory leases granted by the State Government in terms of Section 10 (1) of the Bihar Land Reforms Act in view of the decision of this Court in Bihar Mines Ltd. v. Union of India, (1967) 1 SCR 707 . 11. In 1956 the Mining Leases (Modification of Terms) Rules, 1956 providing for the modification and alteration of the terms and conditions of the mining leases granted prior to the commencement of the 1948 Act so as to bring them in conformity with the terms and conditions of the mining leases granted after the commencement of the 1948 Act in accordance with the Mineral Concession Rules, 1949, were promulgated under Section 7 of the 1948 Act on September 4, 1956. These Rules by virtue of the definition of the "existing mining lease contained in Rule 2 (c) of the Mining Leases (Modification of Terms) Rules, 1956 were made expressly inapplicable to mining leases in respect of coal granted before October 25, 1949 - the date of commencement of 1948 Act with the result that the mining leases or sub-leases of the respondents were not affected by the provisions of the 1948 Act or the rules made thereunder. 12. The 1948 Act was replaced by the Mines and Minerals (Regulation and Development) Act, 1957 (Act No. 67 of 1957) (hereinafter referred to as the 1957 Act) which though after being passed by the Parliament under Entry 54 of List I of the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution received the assent of the President on December 28, 1957, came into force on June 1, 1958. Section 9 of the 1957 Act provided :- "9. Royalties in respect of mining leases :- (1) The holder of a mining lease granted before the commencement of this Act shall, notwithstanding anything contained in the instrument of lease or in any law in force at such commencement, pay royalty in respect of any mineral removed by him from the leased area after such commencement, at the rate for the time being specified in the Second Schedule in respect of that mineral. (2) The holder of a mining lease granted on or after the commencement of this Act shall pay royalty in respect of any mineral removed by him from the leased area at the rate for the time being specified in the Second Schedule in respect of that mineral. (3) The Central Government may, by notification in the official gazette, amend the Second Schedule so as to enhance or reduce the rate at which royalty shall be payable in respect of any mineral with effect from such date as may be specified in the notification : Provided that the Central Government shall not- (a) fix the rate of royalty in respect of any mineral so as to exceed twenty per cent of the sale price of the mineral at the pits head, or (b) enhance the rate of royalty in respect of any mineral more than once during any period of four years. 13. It will be noticed that sub-section (1) of the above quoted section made it obligatory for the holder of a mining lease granted before the commencement of the 1957 Act notwithstanding anything contained in the instrument of his lease or in any other law in force at the commencement of the 1957 Act to pay in respect of any mineral removed by him from the leased area after December 28, 1957, royalty at the rate specified in the Second Schedule of the 1957 Act which for coal was fixed at 5% of F. O. R. price subject to a minimum of fifty N. P. per ton. 14. Section 16 of the 1957 Act provided that mining leases granted before October 25, 1949 would , as soon as might be, after the commencement of the 1957 Act. be brought into conformity with the provisions of the 1957 Act and the rules made under Sections 13 and 18 thereof. 15. Section 29 of the 1957 Act provided for the effective continuance of the rules made or purported to have been made under the 1948 Act in so far as they related to matters provided for in the former Actand were not inconsistent therewith. 16. The effect of Section 9 of the 1957 Act as held by this Court in State of Madhya pradesh v. Dadabhoys New Chirimiri Ponri Hill Colliery Co. 16. The effect of Section 9 of the 1957 Act as held by this Court in State of Madhya pradesh v. Dadabhoys New Chirimiri Ponri Hill Colliery Co. Pvt. Ltd. (1972) 2 SCR 609 was that the rate of royalty was enhanced in case of those lessees who, underthe leases obtained by them before the commencement of the Act, were paying a rate lesser than 5% while the royalty payable by lessees similarly placed was reduced if they were paying royalty at a higher rate. As the enhancement envisaged by Section 9 of the 1957 Act was apprehended to lead to an increase in the cost of production of coal which is a vital mineral for the industrial development and occupies a basic position in the economy of the country, various representations were made to the Government of India to reduce the royalty. Impelled by these representations, the Central Government moved a bill in March, 1958, being Bill No. 33 of 1958, and got, by means of Mines and Minerals (Regulation and Development) Amendment Act, 1958, Section 30-A inserted in the 1957 Act reading as follows:- "30-A. Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act the provisions of sub-section (1) of Section 9 and of sub-section (1) of Section 16 shall not apply to or in relation to mining leases granted before the 25th day of October, 1949 in respect of coal but the Central Government , if it is satisfied that it is expedient so to do, may by notification in the official gazette direct that all or any of the said provisions (including any rules made under Sections 13 and 18) shall apply to or in relation to such leases subject to such exceptions and modifications, if any, as may be specified in that or in any subsequent notification." 17. This section, it would be seen, consisted of two parts. Under the first part, the provisions of Sections 9 (1) and 16 (1) were expressly made inapplicable to or in relation to pre-October 25, 1949 mining leases for coal. This section, it would be seen, consisted of two parts. Under the first part, the provisions of Sections 9 (1) and 16 (1) were expressly made inapplicable to or in relation to pre-October 25, 1949 mining leases for coal. The second part empowered the Central Government on being satisfied that it was expedient so to do to direct by notification that all or any of those provisions (including the rules made under Sections 13 and 18) would apply to or in relation to such leases subject to such exceptions and modifications, if any, as might be specified in that or any subsequent notification. The "exceptions and modifications" which could be so specified in the notification were obviously in regard to the application, when such application was decided upon, of Sections 9 (1) and 16 (1) and the relevant rules. 18. The aforesaid Section 30-A was given a retrospective effect by virtue of Section 2 of the Amendment Act 15 of 1958. 19. Vide notification No. GSR-432 dated May 29, 1958, the 1957 Act was brought into force with effect from June 1, 1958. 20. By notification No. S. O. 3094 dated December 29, 1961, the Central Government in exercise of the powers conferred on it by the second part of Section 30-A of the 1957 Act, directed the provisions of sub-section (1) of Section 9 to apply with immediate effect to or in relation to mining leases in respect of coal granted before October 25, 1949 subject to the modification that the lessees were required to pay royalty at the rates specified in the agreements between them and the lessor or at the rate of 2 1/2% on F. O. R. price of coal, whichever was higher, in place of the rate of royalty specified in respect of coal under the Second Schedule. 21. After the notification, the State Government started demanding royalty at 2 1/2% and initiated proceedings under the Public Demands Recovery Act to realize royalty at 2 1/2% for the period between 29-12-1961 and 31-12-1965. 22. On October 26, 1964, the Bihar Land Reforms Act was amended by insertion of Section 10-A originally by the Bihar Amendment Ordinance No. 3 of 1964 which was subsequently replaced by the Bihar Land Reforms (Amendment) Act, 1964 (Bihar Act 4 of 1965). 22. On October 26, 1964, the Bihar Land Reforms Act was amended by insertion of Section 10-A originally by the Bihar Amendment Ordinance No. 3 of 1964 which was subsequently replaced by the Bihar Land Reforms (Amendment) Act, 1964 (Bihar Act 4 of 1965). Under this newly added section, the lessees interest in mines and minerals which were subject to sub-leases also came to vest in the State of Bihar. Thus the State also acquired the right to sub-lease. On October 27, 1964, the interests of Chakroborty and Adhikaris from whom sub-leases apper to have been taken in the beginning of the current century vested in the State of Bihar. 23. On January 1, 1966, a notification being S. O. No. 81 of 1966, was issued by the Central Government under Section 30-A of the 1957 Act superseding the notification No. S. O. 3094 dated December 29, 1961 and applying the provisions of Section 9 (1) of the 1957 Act to leases granted prior to the commencement of the said Act. 24. On October 3, 1966, this Court pronounced judgment in Bihar Mines Ltd. v. Union of India, (1967) 1 SCR 707 holding therein that the whole or that part of the estate or tenure comprised in any lease of mines and minerals would, with effect from the date of vesting, be deemed to have been leased out by the State Government to the holder of the subsisting lease (i.e. the first lessee) for the remainder of the period of the lease and that the statutory lease thus held by the head lessee from the State Government under Section 10 of the Bihar Land Reforms Act, wo For Citation : AIR 1976 SC 1978