Dr. A.K. Jayasankaran Nambiar, J.
As the issue involved in all these appeals is the same, they are
taken up together for consideration and disposed by this common
judgment.
2. W.A.No.665 of 2017 impugns the judgment dated
14.12.2016 of a learned Single Judge in W.P.(C).No.25006 of 2015.
The petitioners in the said writ petition were owners of property in
Kozhikode district in which they were carrying on granite operations. By
virtue of the judgment of the Supreme Court in Thresiamma Jacob v.
Geologist – [2013 (3) KLT 275 (SC)] persons in ownership of land in
the Malabar region of Kerala State, had to be treated as owners of the
land as well as the sub-soil, and consequently, unless there was an
enactment vesting the ownership of the sub-soil/mineral wealth in the
State of Kerala, there could be no demand of royalty from the said
landowners when they exploited the mineral wealth from their own
lands. It was therefore their case in the writ petition that the provisions
of Rule 2 to 9, 11, 12, 20 and 49 of the Kerala Minor Mineral Concession
CNR : KLHC010459232017
W.A.No.665/2017, 3218/25, 440/26,
587/26, 590/26 & 1263/26 :: 14 ::
