Statutory meaning of minerals includes salt where the historical and legal context shows State ownership and control over salt production.

The term "minerals" in section 231 of the Marwar Land Revenue Act was construed in its statutory and historical context, not as a narrow reference only to substances excavated from mines. Given the former State's treatment of salt as a controlled natural resource and its historical ownership and regulation of salt production, salt fell within the expression "minerals" even when produced by surface evaporation. Press-notes under the Central Excise and Salt Act only relaxed licensing requirements and did not displace proprietary rights, and a jagirdar's lease could not confer rights the lessor did not own.

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Issues: Whether the expression "minerals" in section 231 of the Marwar Land Revenue Act No. 10 of 1949 includes salt, and whether the petitioner's lease from a jagirdar or the Government of India press-notes conferred any right to manufacture salt free from the State's ownership claim.

Analysis: The provision used the expression "mines and minerals" in a setting where the former State had treated salt as a State-controlled natural resource, had leased important salt-producing areas, had excluded private manufacture except with permission, and had extinguished private salt manufacture by compensation arrangements. In that context, the word "mineral" could not be confined to substances physically excavated from mines. Its meaning had to be gathered from the statutory setting and surrounding historical conditions. On that construction, salt was within the scope of the term, irrespective of whether it was produced by excavation or by surface evaporation. The press-notes issued under section 6 of the Central Excise and Salt Act, 1944, merely relaxed licensing requirements for lawful production and did not override existing proprietary rights. A lease from a jagirdar could not convey a right that the jagirdar did not possess.

Conclusion: The expression "minerals" includes salt, the State's ownership over salt prevailed, and the petitioner acquired no enforceable right to manufacture salt from the jagirdar's lease or the press-notes.

Final Conclusion: The petition was rejected and the State's proprietary right in salt within the former Marwar territory was upheld.

Ratio Decidendi: The meaning of "minerals" in a statute must be determined from the statutory context and historical setting, and where that context shows State ownership and control over salt, the term includes salt even if it is produced by surface methods rather than by mining.

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