BUDH RAM Vs. STATE OF HARYANA AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE Petitioner is a manufacturer of crude saltpetre in the For this purpose he takes on lease areas bearing saltpetre earth owned by private proprietors or vested in the Panchayats in the various villages of the State. These leases are either from year to year or for several years depending upon the conditions prevailing in individual areas. By a notification No. GI/ HY/143/68, dated 8.10.1968, published in the Haryana Government Gazette Extraordinary, dated 10.10.1968, the Director of Industries, Haryana Government, had advertised that auction of saltpetre area in different villages of the Districts of Rohtak and Karnal would be held on 11.11.1968 and 12 .11.1968, including villages Singhpura Khurd, Atil, Sambli. Mohri, Iharana and Dabarpur. This notification was challenged by Messrs Punjab Haryana Shora Factory. Gohana and others by means of Civil Writ No. 3405 of 1968 in this Court which was admitted by the Motion Bench and the auction was stayed. The said writ petition was finally dismissed by a Division Bench of this Court consisting of P. C. Pandit and H. R. Sodhi, JJ. Thereafter, by notification No. GTG/HY/143/69/1812, dated 11.02.1969, the Director of Industries, Haryana, notified in the Haryana Government Gazette, dated 11.02.1969 that the auction of saltpetre bearing land in the districts of Karnal, Rohtak and Gurgaon would be held on 17.02.1969,18.02.1969 and 19.02.1969. An auction in pursuance of that notification was held and Respondents 6 to 10 made the bids at those auctions. The Petitioner has filed the present writ petition., challenging the said notification dated 11.02.1969. No return has been filed by the Respondents but the learned Advocate General for the State of Haryana has argued on behalf of Respondents 1 to 4.

(2.) WITHOUT doing into the other matters raised in the petition, the impugned notification is liable to be Set aside on the ground that it has not been issued in accordance with Rule 30 of the Punjab Minor Mineral Concession Rules, 1964. That rule read as under: