A Constitution Bench of the Supreme court led by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud recently ruled that the states of India have the power to levy taxes on mining, and that this power has not been curtailed by a national law enacted in 1957. The states countered that royalties are not taxes, and that they are in any case allowed to tax mineral-bearing lands using their Constitutional power to tax lands, which is separate from their power to tax mining itself. The court also ruled that the states have the power to tax mineral-bearing lands using their Constitutional power to tax lands, which is separately given to them in State List of the Constitution.