Earth is minor minerals

The Supreme Court (SC) last week dismissed the appeals of Som Datt Builders Ltd against the Allahabad high court judgement raising the question if ‘ordinary earth’ used for filling or levelling in construction of embankments, roads, Railways and building are ‘minor minerals’ inviting royalty. The Centre, in a 2000 notification under the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, has specified minor minerals as an item which attracted royalty. The company in this case entered into a contract with the National Highway Authority of India for widening G T Road in Kanpur region. It bought earth from the farmers and land holders. The Centre demanded royalty on the earth, claiming it to be minor minerals. The company moved the high court which dismissed its petitions. It appealed to the SC.

Fishing not seasonal industry

The SC last week ruled fishing is not a seasonal industry and therefore, the workers employed on daily wages cannot be treated as seasonal labour. The court dismissed the appeal of the Gujarat Fisheries Terminal Division ordered by the high court to reinstate a worker with 20 per cent back wages. The state had abolished daily wage workers and in lieu of it asked industries to hire labourers on contractual basis. Following this, a daily wage worker was terminated without notice and not following the rules of the Industrial Disputes Act. He moved the labour court. It asked the employer to absorb him with back wages. The high court upheld the order. 

Dismissed worker compensated

A loader of Oberoi Flight Services, dismissed for allegedly walking away with 30 KLM airlines spoons in his shoes, was awarded a compensation of Rs 2 lakh by the SC. The management dismissed him as he had admitted his guilt. But he challenged his dismissal in the labour court arguing his confession was under threat and coercion. It upheld the dismissal but awarded full back wages. On appeal, the Delhi high court found it difficult to believe that 30 spoons could be carried in a shoe from the security area. However, it upheld the dismissal with a compensation of Rs 60,000. The worker appealed to the SC which raised the compensation to Rs 2 lakh but he would not get back his job. 

Award set aside

The SC has set aside the award of an arbitrator on the ground of ‘legal misconduct’. There was a dispute between the Tamil Nadu Water Supply Board and a contractor, Satyanarayana Brothers, in the construction of Veeranam project, to supply water to Chennai city. Following disputes, two arbitrators and an umpire were appointed. Their award was not acceptable to either parties and a retired SC judge was appointed as the sole arbitrator. However, both parties were aggrieved by his award also. Both of them alleged that there was ‘legal misconduct’ on his part.

The SC agreed with this and appointed a new sole arbitrator, Justice Shivraj Patil, who is again a retired judge of the same court. The Bombay high court last week quashed the Maharashtra government’s industrial policy notification of 2007 and directed the government to grant full exemption in the payment of electricity duty for the period from 1/4/2000 to 30/4/2005 to a large number of big industries which have their own captive power generation plants.

The Government of Maharashtra announced its Industrial Policy some time in early 1993 and proposed not to charge electricity duty on the power generated by the captive power plants and its utilization. However, the government withdrew it in 2000. This was challenged by Reliance Industries, Mukand Ltd, Jindal Poly Films Ltd, Graphite India Ltd and Lupin Ltd, among others. The court allowed their writ petitions and set aside the demand notices.