minal Appeal No 158 of 1965
Appeal from the judgment and order dated September 15 1965 of the Bihar High Court in Criminal Revision No 1326 of 1963
R H Dhebar V D Mahajan and B R G K Achar for the appellant
N C Chatterjee Suprakash Bannerjee and Sukumar Ghose for the respondent
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by Ramaswami J
The question of law presented for determina tion in this appeal is whether the respondent section K Roy is the owner of a coal mine  within the meaning of section 2b and 2e of the Coal Mines Provident Fund and Bonus Schemes Act 1948 Act 46 of 1948 hereinafter called the Act 
The respondent was prosecuted under para 70 of the Coal Mines Provident Fund Scheme hereinafter called the Scheme  for violation of cls
a d and f of paragraph 70 read with paragraphs 33A 38 42 and 69A of the Scheme
An Inspector appointed under the Act filed a complaint against the respondent alleging that he was the owner of the Bhowra Coke Plant and that he had contravened certain provisions of the Scheme
It was alleged that the respondent had failed to pay the contribution for the Provident Fund both employer s and employees  from April 1960 to November 1960 and had failed to submit returns in Form H with corresponding declaration in Form A and the statement in Form P  as provided under the Regulations
The respondent was held guilty by the trying Magistrate and was sentenced to pay a fine of Rs 500 and in default to undergo 3 months  simple imprisonment under paragraph 70a
The respondent went in appeal to the Sessions Judge who dismissed the appeal and confirmed the sentence imposed by the Magistrate
The respondent filed a Revision Application in the Patna High Court which allowed the Revision Application and set aside the conviction and sentence imposed on the respondent holding that the Coke Plant owned by the respondent was not a Coal Mine within the meaning of the Scheme and that the Coke plant was not subject to the provisions of the Scheme and the respondent was not the owner of the mine within the meaning of the Act and the Scheme
The facts found or admitted in this case are 1 The Bhowra Coke Plant originally belonged to the Bhowra Group of collieries owned by the Eastern Coal Company but subsequently in or about the years 1945 to 1947 the Coke Plant was transferred by sale to the respondent 2 The group of Bhowra Collieries was subsequently sold to the Bhowra Kankanee Collieries Limited 3 The respondent is the owner of the Coke Plant and the lessee of the 261 land on which it stands on payment of certain royalty by way of the ground rent for the land the lessor at the relevant time being the Bhowra Kankanee Collieries Limited owning the coal mine and coal field area where the Bhowra Coal Mines are and the Coke Plant is situated 4 The Coke Plant is not only adjacent to the coal mine but is also situated on the surface land which forms part of the coal fields which and beneath which the coal mine is worked by the Bhowra Kankanee Collieries Ltd 5 The respondent does not carry on the work of any coal mine therein he does not excavate any coal by carrying on any operation for the purpose of obtaining coal 6 The Coke Plant is a bye product coke plant in which hard coke as well as some other bye products are manufactured
The question to be considered is whether in this state of facts the respondent is the owner of a coal mine within the meaning of the Act and the Scheme
Under section 2e of the Act the expression Employer means the owner of a coal mine as defined in clause g of section 3 of the Indian Mines Act 1923
The Indian Mines Act 1923 has been repealed and substituted by the Act 35 of 1952
In the latter Act the word owner has been defined in cl
1 of section 2
By virtue of section 8 of the General Clauses Act the definition of the word Employer in cl
e of section 2 of the Act should be construed with reference to the definition of the word owner in cl
1 of section 2 of Act 35 of 1952 which repealed the earlier Act and reenacted it See also the decision of this Court in State of Uttar Pradesh vs MP Singh etc1 According to section 21 of Act 35 of 1952 the word owner when used in relation to a mine means  any person who is the immediate proprietor or lessee or occupier of the mine or of any part thereof and in the case of a mine the business whereof is being carried on by a liquidator or receiver such liquidator or receiver  
The expression coal mine is separately defined in cl
b of section 2 of the Act which reads as follows  2
b Coal mine  means any excavation where any operation for the purpose of obtaining coal has been or is being carried on and includes all works machinery tramways and sidings whether above or below ground in or adjacent to or belonging to a coal mine Provided that it shall not include any part of the coal mine on which a manufacturing process is being carried on unless such process is a process for coke making or the dressing of minerals 
 As a matter of construction it must be held that all works machinery tramways and sidings whether above or below ground in or adjacent to a coal mine will come within the scope and ambit of 1  262 the definition only when they belong to the coal mine
In other words the word or occurring before the expression belonging to a coal mine in the main definition has to be read to mean  and
Any other interpretation would lead to an anomalous and startling consequence
Any works machinery tramways and sidings which do not appertain to the coal mine in the sense of ownership cannot come within the meaning of the expression coal mine as given in the first part of cl
b of section 2 of the Act
They would come by way of subsidiary works machinery or the like if they appertain to and belong to the coal mine in the sense of carrying on excavation work by doing the operation for the purpose of obtaining coal
Suppose for example in a coal field area the lessee from the Government is working a mine but the tramways and sidings have been set up by a railway company only for the purpose of transport of coal
It cannot be imagined that the owner of the tramways or railway siding is the owner of the coal mine within the meaning of the Act for the legislature could not have intended that the work of transport of coal will in itself constitute the working of a coal mine within the meaning of the Act  In our opinion the expression belonging to a coal mine is the controlling expression governing all aspects of the activities of the coal mine within the definition of section 2b and all subsidiary things such as works machinery tramways and sidings are brought within the definition of the coal mine only if they appertain to the coal mine that is to say if they are under the same ownership
We are therefore of the opinion that in order to carry out the legislative intention it is necessary to substitute the conjunction  and for the conjunction or in the definition of a coal mine in section 2b of the Act
It is legitimate in this connection to refer to the expanded definition of the word coal mine in section 2b of the Coal Mines Provident Fund and Bonus Schemes Amendment Act 1965 Act 45 of 1965 which reads as follows 2 for clause b the following clause shall be substituted namely b coal mine  means any excavation where any operation for the purpose of searching for or obtaining coal has been or is being carried on and includes i all borings and bore holes  ii all shafts in or adjacent to and belong to a coal mine whether in the course of being sunk or not iii all levels and inclined planes in the course of being driven 263 v all conveyors or aerial rope ways provided for bringing into or removal from a coal mine of coil or other articles or for the removal of refuse there from viall adits levels planes machinery works railways tramways and sidings in or adjacent to and belonging to a coal mine viiall Workshops situated within the precincts of a coal mine and under the same management and Used for purposes connected with that coal mine or a number of coal mines under the same management ix all power stations for supplying electricity for the purpose of working the coal mine or a number of coal mines under the same management x any premises for the time being used for depositing refuse from a coal mine or in which any operation in connection with such refuse is being carried on being premises exclusively occupied by the employer of the coal mine xiii any premises in or adjacent to and belonging to a coal mine on which any plant or other machinery connected with a coal mine is situated or on which any process ancillary to the work of a coal mine is being carried on It should be noticed that in sub cl
vi it has been provided that the word coal mine includes all adits levels planes machinery works railways tramways and sidings in or adjacent to and belonging to a coal mine
Similarly in cl
vii it includes all workshops situated within the precincts or a coal mine and under the same management and used for purposes connected with that coal mine or a number of coal mines under the same management
Again cl
ii of the amended section 2b states that the word coal mine includes all shafts in or adjacent to and belonging to a coal mine whether in the course of being sunk or not
Similarly cl
xiii of section 2b provides that the word coal mine includes any premises in or adjacent to and belonging to a coal mine on which any plant or other machinery connected with a coal mine is situated or on which any process ancillary to the work of a coal mine is being carried on
In our opinion the change in the language of section 2b of the earlier Act brought about by the amending Act Act 45 of 1965 was not meant to bring about a change Sup5CI 19 264 of law in this respect but was meant to fix a proper interpretation upon the earlier Act
It is a well recognised principle in dealing with matters of construction that subsequent legislation may be looked at in orderer to see what is the proper interpretation to be put upon the earlier Act where the earlier Act is obscure or ambiguous or readily capable of more than one interpretation
See Ormond Investment Co Ltd
Betts1
For the reasons expressed we hold that the respondent is not the owner of a coal mine within the meaning of section 2b of the Act and the High Court has rightly acquitted the respondent of the offence alleged against him under the Scheme
We accordingly dismiss this appeal
Appeal dismissed
at p 166


Summary:
The respondent owned a coke plant which originally belonged to a group of collieries but was later transferred to him
It was situated adjacent to a coal mine on the surface land which formed part of the coal fields beneath which the coal mine was worked
The respondent did not mine or excavate coal himself nor carry on any operation for the purpose of obtaining coal
His coke plant was a bye product Plant in which hard coke as well as some other byeproducts were manufactured
The respondent was prosecuted under para 70 of the Coal Mines Provident Fund Scheme issued under the Coal Mines Provident Fund and Bonus Schemes Act 1948 Act 46 of 1948 on a complaint that as an owner of a coal mine and an employer within the meaning of the Scheme he had failed to pay certain contributions to the Provident Fund
Although he was convicted by the trying Magistrate and his appeal to the Sessions Judge dismissed the High Court allowed a Revision Application and set aside the conviction
The question for consideration in the appeal to this Court was whether the respondent was an owner of a coal mine within the meaning of section 2 of the and therefore an employer as defined by Section 2e of Act 46 of 1948
The expression coal mine in Section 2b of the means any excavation where any operation for the purpose of obtaining coal has been carried on and includes all works machinery tramways and sidings whether above or below ground in or adjacent to or belonging to a coal mine HELD The respondent was not the owner of a coal mine within the meaning of Section 2b of the and the High Court had rightly acquitted him
264 C
The expression belonging to a coal mine is the controlling expression governing all aspects of the activities of the coal mine within the definition of section 2b and all subsidiary things such as works machinery tramways and sidings are brought within the definition of the coal mine only if they appertain to the coal mine that is to
say if they are under the same ownership
In order to carry out the legislative intention it is therefore necessary to substitute the conjunction and for the Conjunction or in the definition of a coal mine in section 2b of the Act
262 D E
Section 2b of the Coal Mines Provident Fund and Bonus Schemes Amendment Act 1965 and Ormond Investment Co Li mited vs Betts  156 referred to 260