TMI Blog1955 (11) TMI 36X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... of the Central Excise and Salt Act (No I) of 1944. The effect of this press-note briefly put, is that the Government in their desire to set up the production of indigenous salt and to attain self-sufficiency in this vital commodity permitted free production of salt (without the necessity of obtaining any licence) by individuals or groups, on land to which they have lawful access for this purpose, and to carry on the manufacture by any process they desire, i.e., by construction of pans and solar evaporation or boiling of brine or excavation of saline earth or any other process; provided that the total area of land covered by the salt works, set up by any individual or group, is not more than 10 acres. Government, however, reserved their right to take suitable preventive measures against the sale of unwholesome salt for human consumption, in the interest of national health. The position was later reviewed in 1955. and by another press-note dated the 11th May, 1955, the Government of India laid down inter alia that after March 1, 1955, individuals or groups may freely produce salt in any land to which they have lawful access for this purpose provided that the total area of the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... leged by him. We are, therefore, unable to agree that hie petition can be thrown out on the mere ground that he has obtained a lease for and is in possession of as much as over 900 acres of land in this connection. The possession of an extensive area by the petitioner in itself is, in our opinion, of no real consequence for the purposes of the present case so long as the petitioner restricts his salt-manufacturing operations to the area within the limitations set forth in the press-notes. 4. The principal question for determination therefore boils down to this: whether in the former State of Manvar the State was the owner of all salt regardless of the consideration that it was produced in Khalsa or in jagir area; because, if that is the correct position in law, then the circumstance that by the press-notes referred to above, the Central Government offered certain special facilities to small manufacturers of salt and permitted them freely to manufacture salt, without being under the necessity of obtaining any licence from them, under the Salt Act cannot per se avail the petitioner for the rights of ownership of the State could not possibly be defeated by anything contained in the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ces-workmen's dwellings and machinery, the stack-ing of minerals and deposit of refuse, the construction of roads, railways or tram lines, and any other purposes which the Government may declare to be subsidiary to mining and quarrying. (3) If the Government has assigned to any person its right over any minerals, mines or quarries, and if for the proper enjoyment of such right it is necessary that all or any of the powers specified in Sub-sections (I) and (2) should be exercised, the Deputy Commissioner may, by an order in writing, subject to such conditions and reservations as he may prescribe, delegate such powers to the person to whom the right has been assigned. Provided that no such delegation shall be made until notice has been duly served on all persons having rights in the land affected; and their objections have been heard and considered. (4) ..... (5) ..... (6) ..... (7) Any person who without lawful authority extracts or removes minerals from any mine or quarry, the right to which vests in and has not been assigned by the Government shall, without prejudice to any other action that may be taken against him, be liable on the order in writing of ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... avated. It has been argued before us that the salt which used to be produced and which the petitioner seeks to produce in the present csse was not being and would not be dug out of the bowels of the earth but was or would be prepared in pans by solar evaporation and is, therefore, not a mi-neral at all. although it is conceded on behalf of the petitioner that rock salt is and would be a mineral for that has to he dug out of the bowels of the earth; but it is strenuously contended that the salt manufactured in the mode adopted by the petitioner cannot be legitimately termed a mineral. The argument may be plausible but on a deeper consideration we are of opinion that it cannot be accepted in the context of the conditions which obtained in the erstwhile State of Marwar. We have reasons to believe that at all relevant times the manufacture of salt was possible in Marwar only by the State or by its lawful assignee, whoever it was and by no other, and it is important to remember in this connection that that State had under certain agreements (see the agreements dated the 27th January and the 18th April, 1870 and the 18th January. 1879 published (by autho-rity) in the Administration ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ally obtained from a mine but mineral bodies occur in three physical conditions of solid, liquid and gas, and although the term is more frequently applied to substances containing metals, in its proper sense it includes all fossil bodies or matters dug out of mines and is not confined to metals only, but primarily means all substances other than the agri-cultural surface of the ground which may be got for manufacturing or merchantile purposes such as stone or clay whether got from a mine as the word would seem to imply or by open working and whether containing metallic substances or substances entirely non-metallic. So it includes all metallic ores, slate and cor-rolities, calk, and calcspar, coal and salt. In the broadest sense as belonging to one of the three great divisions of matter--animal, vegetable and mineral--sand of course is a mineral, and in the more restricted scientific sense it may or may not be a mineral according to what it is composed of. So where parties do not appear to have intended a different meaning, oil or petroleum, gas and water are embraced in the term; and it is said of water and oil and still more strongly of gas that they may be classed by themselv ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... so far as the latter are concerned. We are further of opinion that if the above conclusion is correct, as we think it is, then the mere circumstance that salt in this case is produced not by excavation from the bowels of the earth but by more or less surface working cannot have any material effect as to the conclusion arrived at by us, because in our opinion, the salt so produced is as much a mineral under the Mar-war Land Revenue Act as the other kind of salt such as rock salt which would be without question a mineral. 7. We feel greatly reinforced in the conclusion to which we have come by the case of Waring v. Poden, (1932) 1 Ch 276 (A), which clearly establishes the principle that mines and minerals are pot definite terms, and that they are susceptible of limitation or expansion according to the intention with which they are used and that such intention whether in the case of a statute or a private grant must be determined in the light of its own conditions and circumstances. 8. In the result we hold that the expression mines or minerals as used in the Marwar Land Revenue Act embraces salt within the meaning thereof, and it follows as a necessary corollary that the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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