JUDGMENT

KRISHNA IYER, J.:— We have a hunch - we leave it at that - that these "workers" writ petitions are a kind of litigative puppetry, the illcit mine exploiters being the puppeteers. This set of writ petitions, where some private managements claim to have the right to extract coking coal on the score that prohibition enacted in the Coal Mines (Nationalisation) Amendment Act, 1976 does not affect or operate on coking coal mines, must be dismissed as devoid deserts.

2. The short point sharply focussed by Dr. Chitale and echoed with some variant notes by other counsel, in support of those writ petitions may be briefly stated thus. According to him, the history of coal nationalisation legislation in this country in the seventies of this century shows that Parliament has treated coal and coking coal separately for legislative purposes in regard to taking over of management, nationalisation of ownership and the like. It all began with the year 1971 when Parliament enacted the Coking Coal Mines (Emergency Provisions) Act, 1971 (hereinafter called the 1971 Act for short). It took over management of coking coal mines. Iron and Steel are key industries requiring, importantly, coking coal