Supreme Court of India · 1962-05-03
KALI PADA CHOWDHURY vs UNION OF INDIA
- Citation / case number
- SC 1962/51
- Court
- Supreme Court of India
- Petitioner
- KALI PADA CHOWDHURY
- Respondent
- UNION OF INDIA
- Author
- SINHA, BHUVNESHWAR P.(),GAJENDRAGADKAR, P.B.,SUBBARAO, K.,WANCHOO, K.N.,SHAHC.
- Bench
- SINHA, BHUVNESHWAR P.(CJ),GAJENDRAGADKAR, P.B.,SUBBARAO, K.,WANCHOO, K.N.,SHAH, J.C.
Judgment text excerpt
The Supreme Court held that the Coal Mines Regulations, 1957, were validly framed under Section 59(3) of the Mines Act, 1952, which requires consultation with existing Mining Boards before publication of draft regulations. The Court clarified that Section 12 of the Act, which allows for the constitution of Mining Boards, is permissive ('may') and not mandatory ('shall'), thus the Central Government was not obliged to constitute all Mining Boards. The dissenting opinion argued that the regulations were invalid due to lack of proper consultation as previously established in Banwarilal Agarwalla v. State of Bihar.