KUSHUM LATA Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Challenge in this appeal is to the judgment rendered by a Division Bench of the Allahabad High Court by which the Writ Petition styled as Public Interest Litigation (in short PIL) was held to be not maintainable and was dismissed.

(2.) In the writ petition the stand taken by the appellant was as follows: Respondent No.4 had issued a Notification on 20-11-2002 in pursuance of Government Order dated 2-11-2002 under Rule 23 of the Uttar Pradesh Minor Minerals (Concession) Rules, 1963 (in short the Rules) for auction of mines of sand, boulders etc. located in the district of Saharanpur. As per the Notification the auction was to be held on 23-12-2002, but the same was postponed to 30-12-2002. According to the appellant, she was permitted to take part in the auction on 23-12-2002 but subsequently she was not allowed to participate and with a view to favour respondent No.5, who was politically well connected, in a mala fide manner the auction was held. A writ petition was filed styled as PIL for direction to the authorities for investigating into the alleged irregularities. The High Court noted that one Mohd. Iqbal was the successful bidder who was not a party in the PIL. In any event, the appellant cannot file the PIL when she herself claimed to be an intending bidder. The writ petition was accordingly dismissed.

(3.) In support of the appeal, it has been submitted that the High Court erroneously proceeded on a highly technical basis without appreciating that the public interest was involved, the States largess was being given for a very paltry amount and, therefore, writ application should not have been dismissed.