( 1 ) THESE group of matters comprised in List-I and II are referred to a Full Bench pursuant to an order of the Division Bench of this court consisting of two of us, (SBM, C. J. and NDVB, J.) dated 30-7-1993 as according to the Division Bench, there was a conflict between the decisions rendered by Mr. Chandrakantaraj urs, in Writ Petition No. 4563 of 1987, and group decided on 14-7-1987 and as confirmed by the Division Bench of this court in Writ Appeal Nos. 2059-2096 of 1987 and connected matters decided on 2-12-1987, and against which judgments, several special leave petitions were dismissed by the Supreme Court on the one hand and judgment of Mr. Justice Doddakalegowda, in nanjanayaka and etc, etc. v State of Karnataka and Others, etc. , and which was the subject-matter of pending appeals before a division Bench on the other. The Division Bench placing reliance on the decision of the Full Bench of this court in Khaja Education society v State of Karnataka, referred the entire group of these matters to the Full Bench rather than raising and referring for determination only question of law under Section 7 of the Karnataka High Court Act, 1961. Pursuant to the said Order of Reference by the Division Bench, these matters have been placed before the present Full Bench as per the directions of the hon'ble Chief Justice.

( 2 ) IN order to appreciate the contours of the main controversies posed for our consideration in these matters, it will be necessary to refer to the backdrop of relevant facts leading to these proceedings. Backdrop of facts

( 3 ) THESE referred matters, as noted earlier, comprised of various matters listed in two lists namely, the List No. I and List no. II. So far as List No. I is concerned, it consists of four types of matters, namely, (i) writ appeals filed by the State of karnataka against judgment of Mr. Justice Rajendra Babu, following the decision of Mr. Justice Chandrakantaraj Urs, (ii) writ appeals filed by the original writ petitioners against the judgment of Mr. Justice Doddakalegowda, supra, (iii) writ petitions filed by occupants of patta lands in Karnataka State which were earlier included in old Mysore State territory, and (iv) writ petitions filed by the occupants of Raitwary patta lands situated in Karnataka State, which were earlier comprised in old Madras State territory. So far as the last two categories of cases are concerned, there are some writ petitions wherein the writ petitioners are occupants of lands being grantees of government lands under Land Grant Rules. List No. II consists of 429 writ petitions challenging the vires of the Karnataka ordinance No. 2 of 1993 as amending Section 70 of the karnataka Land Revenue Act, 1964 with retrospective effect and also the vires of the consequential Karnataka Act No. 20 of 1993 amending the very same provision in the very same manner.

( 4 ) IN all these proceedings, the pivotal question which arises for consideration centres round the rights of the pattadars occupying the lands which were either situated in ex-Madras state territory or in ex-Mysore State territory and which got later on included in the Karnataka State qua the sub-soil minor mineral granite which is found in their respective lands. The original petitioners contend that as they are the occupants of these lands as pattadars, they have got the ownership rights over this sub-soil minor mineral namely, the granite. While the state of Karnataka, on the other hand, contends that these holders of the patta lands have no such ownership rights over the said minor mineral granite and it vests in the State. As a sequester to this main controversy arises a further controversy as to whether these occupants of patta lands are required to follow the gamut of the procedure laid down by Section 4 of the mines and Minerals (Regulation and Development) Act, 1957, read with the relevant provisions of the Karnataka Minor mineral Concession Rules, 1969, in so far as they themselves seek to extract the

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