Centre seeks review of SC's mineral royalty judgment

NEW DELHI: Faced with a huge financial burden caused by the ruling of a nine-judge bench of Supreme Court enabling states to collect royalty on extracted minerals and to levy tax on mineral-bearing land, Centre has sought a review, pointing out several "errors apparent in the judgment".

Interestingly, the Centre has roped in Madhya Pradesh as a co-petitioner to seek review of the July 25 judgment in an open court hearing and argued that the issue raised by it "pertains to the fundamental rights of the citizens of the country and raises larger issue of public interest and grave injustice would ensue if the application for oral hearing of the review petition is not allowed".

When senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for some mineral-rich states, sought early listing of pending cases relating to dues before a regular bench to follow the nine-judge verdict and give the intended financial relief, solicitor general Tushar Mehta and senior advocate A M Singhvi told a bench led by CJI D Y Chandrachud about filing of the review petitions by the Centre and a Tata group entity.

"Review of a Constitution bench judgement," exclaimed the CJI.

Dwivedi said the review plea was indicative of the fact that PSUs, who have benefited immensely from extraction of minerals without paying royalty or tax on mineral-bearing land for decades, did not want to pay the minimum amount fixed by the apex court.

After Centre and private companies requested the court to make the levies on minerals by states prospective, the nine-judge bench, with Justice B V Nagarathna dissenting, had clarified on Aug 14 that arrears of royalty and tax on mineral-bearing land would be paid in instalments to states from 2005 over the next 12 years. It was also clarified that arrears would not attract interest.

The financial implication for public sector undertakings, without interest, has been estimated to be Rs 70,000 crore. This jumps to 1.5 lakh crore if the arrears due from 2005 to be realised from private sector industries are included. Mineral-rich states which will benefit majorly are Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Pleading with SC for prospective implementation of its nine-judge bench ruling, Union govt had argued that retrospective application would create a burden humongous enough to ruin many PSUs and industries, dent the larger economy and send prices of almost every product soaring.


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