Coal Mines- Law providing for prospecting for coal and acquisition -Validity - “Unworked land”, meaning of-"To undertake any operation in the land", meaning of - Coal Bearing Areas (Acquisition and Development) Act, 1957 (20 of 1957), ss. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, l3, 14 - Constitution of India, Arts. 31A(1)(e), 31(2). 

Coal Mines- Law providing for prospecting for coal and acquisition -Validity - “Unworked land”, meaning of-"To undertake any operation in the land", meaning of - Coal Bearing Areas (Acquisition and Development) Act, 1957 (20 of 1957), ss. 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, l3, 14 - Constitution of India, Arts. 31A(1)(e), 31(2). The Coal Bearing Areas (Acquisition and Development) Act, 1957, was enacted, as indicated in the preamble, for providing for the acquisition by the State of unworked land containing or likely to contain coal deposits, and under s. 4(1) of the Act, the Central Government was empowered to issue a notification with reference to its intention to prospect for coal from land in any locality. By s. 5(b) any mining lease granted to a person and in respect of which a notification had been issued shall cease to have effect, and under s. 7 the Central Government was entitled to acquire the mining rights within a period of two or three years from the date of the notification. On July 28, 1960, the Central Government published a notification under s. 4(1) of the Act in respect of an area included in the colliery in which the petitioners had acquired mining rights. Between the year 1932 and the month of May, 1960, the colliery was not worked because it was uneconomical to work it, but the petitioners made an application on December 3, 1959, to the Coal Board for permission to reopen the Colliery and though no reply was received from the Board, the petitioners commenced drilling operations in May, 1960, but discontinued them from August 12, 1960, in view of the notification. The petitioners challenged the validity of the notification on the ground that the preamble of the Act and ss. 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 show that the Act was applicable only to unworked mines which must mean virgin lands, and not to those which were being worked at the time of notification or which were worked in the past, whereas the petitioners' coalfield had been worked and the working had ceased for some time only due to the unremunerative market for the produce. The petitioners also contended that the Act contravened Arts. 19(1)(g) and 31(2) of the Constitution of India on the grounds (1) that the effect of a notification under the Act was to prevent an owner or lessee of a mine from working for two or three years, which was too long a period and, therefore, the restrictions could not be regarded as reasonable, (2) that the Act did not contain any provision for compensation for the deprivation of the petitioners' right to carry on their business for two or three years, and (3) that s. 13 of the Act, though it dealt with the payment of compensation, did not provide for compensation for mineral rights.