JUDGMENT

RANGANATHAN, J.:—These are connected batches of civil appeals and special leave petitions. We grant special leave to appeal in all the petitions (condoning the delay in the filing of the unnumbered one referred to below) and proceed to dispose of all the appeals by this common judgment. The details of the appeals and petitions are, for sake of convenient reference, tabulated below:

High Court Date of Civil Appeal/ Name of

judgment S.L.P. Nos. Appellant

1. Orissa 17-4-1980 C.A. 2053-2080/80 Tata Iron & Steel Co. Ltd.

7-3-1983 C.A. 4353-4354/83 Orissa Cement Ltd.

22-12-1989 S.L.P. 1479/90 State of Orissa

22-12-1989 S. L. P. /90 Orient Paper & Industries Ltd. & Anr.

13-7-1990 S. O. P. 11939/90 -do-

2. Bihar 10-2-1986 C.A. 592/86 Tata Iron & Steel Co. Ltd.

3. Madhya Pradesh 28-3-1986 C.A. 1641-1662/86 State of M. P.

2. We shall discuss later the manner in which these appeals and petitions have arisen.

THE ISSUE

3. The validity of the levy of a "cess", based on the royalty derived from mining lands, by the States of Bihar, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh is challenged in these petitions and appeals. A seven Judge Bench of this Court in India Cement (1990) 1 SCC 12 struck down a similar