The main legal point established in the judgment is that the stamp duty for a mining lease should be calculated based on anticipated royalty, surface rent, and security deposit as per the provisions of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act and the Indian Stamp Act.

JUDGMENT

(Prayer: Writ Petition is filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, for the issuance of Writ of Certiorarified Mandamus, calling for the records of the third respondent comprised in his letter Rc.No.1749/G&M/2006 dated 16.10.2006 and Rc.No.1749/G&M/2006 dated 05.01.2007 and quash the same as arbitrary, illegal and ultra vires the provisions of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 and The Indian Stamp Act as applicable to the State of Tamil Nadu and consequently direct the fourth respondent to compute the stamp duty for the purpose of execution of the mining lease deed only on the basis of dead rent.)

1. The relief sought for in the present writ petition is to call for the records of the third respondent comprised in his letter Rc.No.1749/G&M/2006 dated 16.10.2006 and Rc.No.1749/G&M/2006 dated 05.01.2007 and quash the same as arbitrary, illegal and ultra vires the provisions of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 and The Indian Stamp Act as applicable to the State of Tamil Nadu and consequently direct the fourth respondent to compute the stamp duty for the purpose of execution of the mining lease deed only on the basis of dead rent.

2. The case of the petitioner-Company is that they are engaged in the business of manufacturing cement. The petitioner-Company requires limestone for the purpose of manufacturing cement, which is a mineral as defined in the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957. Accordingly, the petitioner is required to take a mining lease as per the provisions of the Mines and Minerals Act for extracting limestone from limestone bearing land.

3. The fifth respondent is controlling the regulations of Mines and the development of mineral, which are vested in the first respondent and other respondents are public servants and authorities constituted under the Mines and Minerals Act, Stamp Act and Registration Act to discharge various functions under the Act.

4. The petitioner-Company established its first Cement Plant at Dalmiapuram, Lalgudi Taluk, Trichy District in the year 1939. The capacity of the petitioner''s plant at Dalmiapuram in 2001 was around 12 lakhs per annum. The petitioner is having certain existing mining leases to mine limestone for the purpose of manufacturing cement. However, as reserves of the mineral in the existing mines were getting exhausted, the petitioner applied for a new mining lease in Periya Thirukonam Village for 44.70.5 Hectares on 18.06.2001 for a period of 30 years, keeping in view its requirement at that point of time. The entire land for which lease was applied is patta lands owned by the petitioner-Company. Pursuant to such an application, the Government through the second respondent in its proceedings Rc.No.14812/MM4/2003 dated 25.05.2005 was pleased to grant the petitioner a mining lease for a period of 30 years. The said order consisted of the usual conditions for grant of such leases. It was stipulated under the said Government Order that the period of mining lease shall take effect only from the date on which the executed lease deed is registered as per Rule 31(2) of the Mineral Concession Rules, 1960.

5. The petitioner received a communication bearing reference RC 1749/G&M/2006 dated 16.10.2006 wherein the third respondent called upon the petitioner to pay the stamp duty of Rs.220 lakhs (approximately) to enable execution of mining lease. The petitioner-Company submitted a representation dated 20.11.2006 raising objections that royalty payable cannot be taken into account for levy of stamp duty as dead rent has already been determined by the Government and secondly the royalty payable over lease period cannot be calculated by multiplying the annual extraction (as approved by Indian Bureau of Mines) by 30 (the number of years of mining lease) without taking into account the fact that total reserves of lime stone available in the mine, would get exhausted much earlier (as approved by Indian B