GUMAN MAL LODHA, J.

( 1 ) A common question of law is involved in these writ petitions, regarding the validity of charging of dead-rent by the State of Rajasthan and its functionaries under the provisions of the Rajasthan Minor Mineral Concession Rules 1077 (hereinafter called to be as the concession Rules), and Mines and Minerals (Regulation and Development) Act, 1957 (hereinafter called to be as the Act of 1957 ). A bunch of 12 writ petitions, in which validity of the charging of dead rent was challenged, came up for consideration before this Court in Atmaram bilochi v. State of Rajasthan Civil Writ Petn. No. 955 of 1980 (Per Honble Mr. Justice K. S. Sidhu), on 8th August, 1980, it was held that the Government of rajasthan was authorised by law to collect and levy, dead-rent. It was then held that the dead-rent is a kind of minimum rent or royalty with this difference that the rent, called royalty, is a varying charge based on the value of the product, and the rent, called dead rent is a minimum annual payment, which is usually not enforced if the amount payable as annual royalty is more than the amount of dead-rent fixed for the year. Royalty, in a sense, is therefore t