SC to set up bench to hear pleas of states on recovery of royalty, tax dues

The Supreme Court on Wednesday said it will set up a bench to hear subsequent pleas of mineral-rich states like Jharkhand seeking to recover royalty and tax dues on mineral rights and mineral-bearing lands worth thousands of crore of rupees from the Centre and mining firms.

On July 25, a nine-judge bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, in a majority 8:1 verdict, had ruled that the legislative power to tax mineral rights vests in states and not Parliament.

In a subsequent order on August 14, the top court clarified that the judgement will not have prospective effect and permitted mineral-rich states recover from the Centre and mining firms the royalty and tax dues on mineral rights and mineral-bearing lands worth thousands of crore of rupees since April 1, 2005 over a period of 12 years.

On Wednesday, senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for Jharkhand, urged the bench comprising the CJI and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra to allocate the pleas, relating to recover