Case: Promoters &amp; Builders Assn.Of Pune Vs. State Of Maharashtra

2. The appellant in the first batch of appeals before us is an Association representing individual builders of the State of Maharashtra who carry out construction activities in the normal course of business. The Association and also the individual builders are aggrieved by the judgment of the Bombay High Court dated 8.10.2010, inter alia, holding that "excavation activity even for the purposes of laying foundation of the building would still attract rigours of Section 48(7) of the Revenue Code".Under the aforesaid provision of the Code extraction of minerals by any person without assignment of any right by the State Government makes such person liable to penalty, as prescribed.3. The Nuclear Power Corporation, the second appellant before us is a Government Company engaged in the construction, maintenance and operation of nuclear power station in India. It is aggrieved by the fact that though an issue similar to the one raised by the builders had been raised by it before the High Court the writ proceeding instituted by the Corporation has been dismissed on the ground that statutory remedy under the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code, 1966 (hereinafter referred to as the Code) had not been resorted to by the Corporation.4. The relevant facts may, at the outset, be alluded to.In the first set of appeals, digging of earth for the purpose of laying of foundation of a building is an integral part of the building activities undertaken by the appellants. According to the appellant-builders, the earth excavated or dug up is redeployed in the building itself at a particular stage of the construction. On the basis that such activity amounts to mining of a "minor mineral" i.e. ordinary earth and that the same is without due permission/lease or assignment of the right to do so, the respondent authorities have invoked the power under Section 48(7) of the Code to levy penalty by the order(s) impugned before the High Court. The challenge having resulted in the findings of the High Court, as extracted above, the present appeals have been filed by the Association of the Builders and also by some of the builders themselves.5. The facts in the appeal filed by Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited are largely similar. In consonance with its objects, the Corporation in whose favour the grant of land was made had carried out digging activities for the purpose of widening of the water channel through which sea water is drawn for the purposes of cooling the nuclear plant in the Tarapur Atomic Power Station. The Corporation categorically denies any commercial use of the extracted earth.

Court's reasoning:
If it were a mere question of Mines and Minerals Act, 1957 covering the removal of earth, there cannot be possibly any doubt whatever, now, in view of the very wide definition of the term contained in the enactment itself, and as interpreted by the authoritative pronouncements of the Supreme Court. As noted earlier, the question involved in the present case is not to be determined with reference to the Central enactment but with reference to the clauses in the grant and the provisions in the Code. When it is noted that the Company was given the land for the purpose of erecting massive structures as needed in setting up a chemical factory of the designs and dimensions of the company, the context would certainly rule out a reservation for the State Government of the earth that is found in the land. That will very much defeat the purpose of the grant itself. Every use of the sod, or piercing of the land with a pick-axe, would, in that eventuality, require sanction of the authorities. The interpretation so placed, would frustrate the intention of the grant and lead to patently absurd results. To equate the earth removed in the process of digging a foundation, or otherwise, as a mineral product, in that context, would be a murder of an alien but lovely language. The reading of the entire grant, would certainly rule out a proposition equating every pebble or particle of soil in the granted land as partaking the character of a mineral product. In the light of the above conclusion, I am clearly of the view that the orders of the authorities, are vitiated by errors of law apparent on the face of the record. They are liable to be quashed. I do so."