Judgment

RAGHUBAR DAYAL, J. : This appeal, on a certificate granted by the High Court at Calcutta, raise the question whether the person with whom a resumed invalid Lakhraj (revenue free) land was permanently settled has rights in the sub soil minerals or not. The necessary facts are briefly these :

2. The plaintiffs are the proprietors of the land in suit in C. S. Khatian No. 611 and Sub-Khatians Nos. 612 and 613 of village Sripur in Touzi No. 2597 of the Burdwan Collectorate.

3. The Maharaja of Burdwan is the proprietor of the lands in village Sripur appertaining to Touzi No. 12 of Burdwan Collectorate. He let out those lands to the Pals and Goswamis of Sripur in Putni right. The Putnidars also took coal mining lease of those lands from the Maharaja and, thereafter, both the Maharaja and the Putnidars granted the coal mining lease of those lands to one P. K. Chatterji of Ikrah who, in his turn, granted a sub-lease of the same to Messrs. Lodna Colliery Co. Ltd., the predecessors-in-interest of the defendant company, the Lodna Colliery Co. (1920) Ltd.

4. A portion of the lands in suit, subsided and on enquiry the plaintiffs found that the defendant company had cut away a large quantity