Supreme Court of India said, Mines and mineral are national wealth

Supreme Court of India said, Mines and mineral are national wealth

Mines and minerals are part of the nation’s wealth, Indian Supreme Court has said, upholding the Jharkhand government’s decision to cancel its recommendation to the Centre to grant mining lease in the state to six private firms.

A bench of justices R M Lodha and H L Gokhale gave the ruling rejecting the private firms’ plea that the state’s act of withdrawing its recommendation to the Centre after making the same was illegal.

Article 39(b) of the Directive Principles mandates that the state shall, in particular, direct its policy towards securing that the ownership and control of the material resources of the community are so distributed as best to subserve the common good.

“We, however, do not find any error in the letter of withdrawal dated September 13, 2005, issued by the state of Jharkhand and the letter of rejection dated March 6, 2006, issued by the Union of India for the reasons stated therein.