MANOHAR SINGH MARWAHA Vs. STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners, owners of Dairy farms in the Gwarighat area of Jabalpur have called in question the validity of the notification dt. 19-3-1999 issued by the Municipal Corporation, Jabalpur in excercise of powers vested under Clause 19(1)(b) of Municipal Corporation, Jabalpur Pashu (Niyantran) Adesh, 1978 towards the implementation of the resolution No. 70 dt. 21-10-1997 passed by the standing committee thereof, which was incompetent to do so. By the impugned notification a complete ban was imposed on carrying out dairy farming in two villages, namely, Gwarighat and Lalpur which were earlier exempted from being out of bounds for keeping cattles. In its hind-sight, the resolution No. 70 dated 21-10-97 was passed by the standing committee of Municipal Corporation Jabalpur for shifting all dairies by the end of 1997 from city area to out-skirits of the township, with a view to protect the residents against any health hazards as also to keep the city clean and absolutely free from water pollution, feared to be more likely on account of the region being prone to frequent earthquakes and location of the dairy farms also being in close proximity of water pipe line passing through that area. The challenge is directed, inter alia, mainly on the grounds that (a) the standing committee lacked jurisdiction being incompetent to pass any such resolution as the powers anchored to, under Section 4 of the M. P. Pashu (Niyantran) Adhiniyam, 1976 (hereinafter to be referred to as Act No. 21 of 1976) regarding control, maintenance, supply, and distribution, etc. have been delegated by the State Government under Section 6 of the Act, to the Municipal Corporation and not to its standing committee; (b) that it was mala fide act which also suffered from the vice of non-application of mind and colourable exercise of power; and (c) that it is a pronounced case of procedural ultra vires.

(2.) As per averments in the petitions, the petitioners are established in the business of dairy farming for quite some time. Presently, they are running their dairy farms from villages called Gwarighat and Lalpur in Jabalpur. They allege that the respondents herein have been pressurising the dairy owners of Jabalpur on one pretext or other, right since 1971 to shift their dairy farms from the township of Jabalpur to places out-side its Municipal Area which led to protracted litigation on various counts.

(3.) The action as such of the Municipal Corporation (resp. No. 2) was questioned by way of a writ petition registered as M.P. No. 738/1971 (Sundarlal and 76 others v. The Municipal Corporation, Jabalpur and another), which was disposed of in view of a scheme, where under, the respondent No. 2 was to reserve three huge plots in the out-skirts of the township for dairy farms. Thereafter, there was another set of litigation by way of writ petition No. M.P. No. 643/76 (Sardar Santok Singh and 66 others v. Municipal Corporation) filed in this Court which impugned the payment of development charges. The said writ petition was dismissed on 2-7-76. As a result, the dairy owners of Jabalpur were either to shift their dairy farms on to three reserved plots or to make their own arrangements. The dairy owners preferred the later and chose to make their own arrangements. They purchased agricultural lands situated in the out-skirts of the township and shifted their dairy farms. In the mean time, the respondents came out with the Act No. 21 of 1976. The relevant provisions of the Act namely, Sections 4 and 6 on reproduction read as under :