Mineral-extraction arrangement treated as a lease; Section 28 prevailed over retention rights under the West Bengal estates scheme.

A mineral-extraction arrangement granting exclusive possession for a fixed term and yearly payment is, in substance, a lease and not a mere licence. The right to raise, remove and appropriate sand from the land amounted to mining operations involving a minor mineral. Because the mine was not directly worked by the intermediary immediately before vesting, Section 28 of the West Bengal Estates Acquisition Act, 1953 applied and, by virtue of its overriding effect, prevailed over Section 6(1)(i). The intermediary therefore had no right to retain the holding under Section 6(1)(i), and retention of the land was excluded by the statutory scheme.

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Issues: Whether the land in dispute was governed by Section 28 of the West Bengal Estates Acquisition Act, 1953, rather than Section 6(1)(i), and whether the document described as a licence was in substance a lease.

Analysis: The right granted under the document was to raise, take out and remove sand from the land for a fixed term on yearly payment, with exclusive possession for the period of the arrangement. Read as a whole, the transaction conferred a right to carry on mining operations and to appropriate the mineral, and therefore answered the legal description of a lease and not a mere licence. The land contained sand, which is a minor mineral, and the operations carried on amounted to mining operations within the statutory meaning. However, Section 28 applied because the mine was not being directly worked by the intermediary immediately before the date of vesting, but through the grantee. Section 27 gave Chapter IV overriding effect, so Section 28 prevailed over Section 6(1)(i).

Conclusion: The appellant had no right to retain the holding under Section 6(1)(i), and Section 28 governed the case against the appellant.

Final Conclusion: The statutory scheme excluded retention of the land by the intermediary, and the challenge to the decree therefore failed.

Ratio Decidendi: Where land comprised in or appertaining to a mine is being worked through a lessee or licensee and is not directly worked by the intermediary immediately before vesting, Section 28 overrides Section 6(1)(i) of the West Bengal Estates Acquisition Act, 1953; a mineral-extraction arrangement granting exclusive possession for a term is a lease in substance, not a mere licence.

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