The Kerala High Court has declared the Kerala Minerals (Vesting of Rights) Act, 2021, as unconstitutional, finding that the State legislature was unqualified to enact the legislation. The court held that the Act violated Article 300A of the Constitution, which protects a person against deprivation of property. The court also directed a refund of the royalty paid by the petitioners aggrieved by the Act.
Article 300A
Article 300A of the Indian Constitution dictates that “no person shall be deprived of his property save by authority of law”. Introduced via the 44th Amendment in 1978, it relegated the right to property from a Fundamental Right to a constitutional/legal right, protecting citizens from arbitrary state seizures without proper legal backing.