Now Reading: Supreme Court stays Kerala HC order on Malabar mining royalty refund
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Supreme Court stays Kerala HC order on Malabar mining royalty refund
The Supreme Court on 24 August 2026 stayed a Kerala High Court judgment that had directed the state to refund royalty collected from quarries in the Malabar region under the Kerala Minerals…
The Supreme Court on 24 August 2026 stayed a Kerala High Court judgment that had directed the state to refund royalty collected from quarries in the Malabar region under the Kerala Minerals (Vesting of Rights) Act, 2021. A Bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant granted the stay, providing significant relief to the Kerala government, which could have faced a financial liability of around Rs 1,200 crore if the refund were enforced.
The Kerala High Court had struck down the 2021 Act as unconstitutional, noting it did not provide compensation to landowners when mineral rights beneath private land were vested with the state. The state challenged that order, arguing that similar laws existed for the erstwhile Travancore and Cochin regions where sub-soil mineral rights already vested with the state, but no such law applied to Malabar.
During the hearing, the Chief Justice orally suggested the state could amend the legislation to include compensation for landowners. Justice Bagchi observed that placing the amended law under the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution could offer a permanent solution.
Indian Opinion Analysis
The dispute exposes a colonial-era legal gap: mineral rights in Malabar, under British Madras Presidency, never passed to the state, unlike in Travancore and Cochin princely states where they were always government property. The 2021 Act tried to unify the regime but ran into the constitutional requirement of compensation for property deprivation. The Supreme Court's suggestion to amend and add compensation, possibly via the Ninth Schedule, offers a path that avoids both a Rs 1,200 crore refund and a complete loss of state revenue. The next hearing will clarify timelines for such an amendment.
Source: english.mathrubhumi.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
