MADHAV KUMAR MISHRA Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) HEARD Mr. Pushkar Narain Shahi learned counsel for the petitioner and learned Government Advocate No. 8, for the State. No one appears for respondent nos. 5 and 6 although notices were duly served upon them. Kailash Bihari Thakur Versus Bihar State Food & Civil Supplies Corporation

(2.) THE petitioner has, in this writ petition, sought quashing of the notification dated 23.3.2004 (Annexure -2) issued by the State Government in exercise of powers under Section 6 of the Bengal Ferries Act, 1885 to the extent that it relates to declaration of Manihari Storage and Transshipment Ghat to Khuntagarai Ghat, to be a Public Ferry and the consequential settlement of the said Ferry made by the Collector, Katihar and for further consequential reliefs. The petitioner is a settlee of Manihari Storage and Transshipment Ghat Ferry notified as a public ferry which operates on the river the Ganges between Sahebganj on the southern side (now within the State of Jharkhand) and Manihari Ghat on the northern side, which is in Katihar district of the State of Bihar. The said Public Ferry was notified by the State Government by notification being S.O. No. 315 dated 27.2.1979 before the reorganization of the State of Bihar and the petitioner has been a settlee of the same from time to time for a long period of time except for the years 2006 to 2008, during which period the settlement has been taken in the name of his partner, Maheshanand Jha. Thereafter, for the period 2008 to 2010 it has again been settled with the petitioner. On 23.3.2004, the Government of Bihar came out with a notification (Annexure -2) under Sections 6(a), (e), (f) of the Bengal Ferries Act in which notification several public ferries were notified, one of which was Manihari Storage and Transshipment Ghat to Khuntagarai Ghat.

(3.) THE grievance of the petitioner is that the points between which the said ferry has been established is not clearly specified in the notification dated 23.3.2004. In actual practice however, the said Ghat has been settled with a private party taking it to be the points where the Kachcha road maintained by the petitioner on the northern bank of the river Ganges to the point where it meets the State highway.