MANGILAL Vs. STATE OF RAJASTHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is the writ petition under Art. 226 of the Constitution of India by one Mangilal and by it he seeks a writ, direction or order for quashing an order of the Director of Mines and Geology, Rajasthan, Udaipur, dated 21st February, 1966 whereby a lease in respect of 112-1/2 acres of land lying within the revenue boundaries of village Khubnagar was granted to respondent No. 5. The case with which the petitioner has come forward is briefly this :

(2.) HE claims that a mining lease in respect of the lands covered by the revenue boundary of village Khubnagar, tehsil Karauli, district Sawaimadhopur, was granted to him by the State Government on 15th November, 1962 for a period of five years as a result of public auction. The lease was executed in his favour and a copy of it (Ex. 1) has been placed on the record. The petitioner submits that since the grant of the lease he has been working the quarries in that area and had invested a substantial amount in improving the quarries by laying out roads and had also advanced money to the labourers in the natural expectation that he would be allowed to have the benefit of rights granted to him without any interruption. His grievance is that during the currency of his lease the Director of Mines and Geology granted a mining lease to respondent No. 5 in respect of three plots out of which plot No. 1 overlaps the area already granted to the petitioner as this area of plot No. 1 lay within the boundary of village Khubnagar. The petitioner is not making any grievance in respect of plots Nos. 2 and 3, granted to respondent No. 5 which are outside his leased area being in the boundaries of other villages, namely, Harnagar and Bichpari. In short, the petitioner's case is that having once granted the mining lease to the petitioner in respect of the entire area comprising the revenue boundaries of village Khubnagar, respondents Nos. 1 to 4 have acted wholly without jurisdiction in granting a second lease to respondent No. 5. In view of this, he asks for cancellation of the order of the Director of Mines and Geology dated 21st February, 1966 to the extent it relates to plot No. 1 comprising the area granted to respondent No. 5.