RAJ RANI SEKHRI Vs. U P GOVT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a petition by Shrimati Rajrani Sekhri under Article 226, Constitution of India praying for a writ in the nature of mandamus directing the opposite parties, viz. , the Government of Uttar fradesh and the District Supply Officer of Luck-now, to withdraw an order made by a letter dated the 25th February, 1953. The petitioner further prays that this Court should issue a direction to the opposite parties to grant to the petitioner a quota for hard and soft coke so that she may be able to carry on the business of a coal depot holder which business she had been carrying on since 1949.

(2.) THE petitioner's case was that she had been granted "depot holder's" licence and that as such licensee she had been carrying on the trade of selling coal and making profits out of those sales. She further stated that she was able to get this permit because she had been a refugee who had migrated from Pakistan in August 1947 and further because she had started an institution called "shri Kamla Nehru Mahila Shilp Shiksha Kendra" at Lucknow for imparting free training to refugee women in tailoring and embroidery. Her assertion further was that the allotment of a "coal depot" holder's licence was to her, in her personal capacity, and not in any sense connected with the institution viz. Shri Kamla Nehru Mahila Shilp Shiksha Kendra.

(3.) ON behalf of the opposite parties, the right of the petitioner to make this petition has been challenged. It has been stated on behalf of the opposite parties that the petitioner is not a "coal quota holder", nor was she ever such a coal quota holder. It was pointed out in the counter affidavit filed on behalf of the opposite parties that the petitioner applied for being given a coal quota not in her personal capacity bub on behalf of the institution named above. It was pointed out that the allotment which followed the application of the petitioner must, therefore, be deemed to have been an allotment in favour of the institution, and not the petitioner individually. The order made by the opposite party No. 2, which has been assailed by the petitioner in this petition viz. the order of the 25th February, 1953 which is an order in these terms: