New Delhi: The Union government has asked for a review of the Supreme Court’s nine-judge bench judgment upholding the power of states to tax the extraction of minerals from their land, Indian Express has reported.
The judgment, which was delivered by the Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, had a 8:1 majority ruling. The initial order came on July 25 and in a subsequent order on August 14, the apex court noted that the judgement will not have prospective effect. It allowed mineral-rich states to recover arrears from the Union government and mining firms since April 1, 2005. This would mean that the Union government would now have to pay thousands of crores to states.
Just a day ago, PTI had reported the Supreme Court as having said that it will set up a bench to hear subsequent pleas of mineral-rich states like Jharkhand seeking to recover royalty and tax dues on mineral rights and mineral-bearing lands worth thousands of crore of rupees from the Union government and mining firms.
Now, the Union government has sought a review of both the July 25 and the August 14 judgments.
Express quoted it as having said, “The ultimate impact of the retrospective application of the judgment is that the common man may have to bear the burden of the extraordinary dues that will be presented to the entire sector. This would be extremely deleterious to the economic health of the nation and would unnecessarily burden the common man.”
The Union government has also said that the judgement ignores the macro-economic impact of minerals as a resource along with practical realities.
The Indian Express report noted that the government also opposed the Supreme Court’s interpretation that the expression “land” as appearing in Entry 49 of List II – State List – includes lands of every description and that mineral-bearing land also falls within this description and said if such an interpretation “is adopted, the entire constitutional federal regime on minerals would collapse”.
