MOOTHAM,J. - (1.) THIS is a petition under Art. 226 of the Constitution. The petitioner is the Karta of a joint Hindu family firm which carries on business in the name of the Northern India Lime Marketing Association, hereinafter referred to as "the Association". The first respondent is the State of Uttar Pradesh and the other respondents are State officials. The principle relief sought by the petitioner is the issue of a writ in the nature of mandamus to compel the State Government to issue to the Association a mining lease to which he claims that it has a statutory right.
(2.) THE circumstances giving rise to this petition are briefly these : In the Dehra Dun District of this State there are valuable limestone deposits, and on the 31 -7 -1948, the Association was granted a prospecting licence in the form prescribed by the United provinces Mining Concessions and Mineral Development Rules, 1940 (hereinafter referred to as "the 1940 Rules") and purporting to be issued in accordance with those Rules. The licence was for a period of one year in the first instance, and under it the Association was given the right subject to the royalties, covenants and agreements therein reserved and contained to enter upon the lands described in the schedule thereto, to search for and win certain specified minerals lying under such land and to carry away and dispose of the minerals so worked for the use and benefit of the Association. The minerals specified in this licence included limestone. Rule 31 of the 1940 Rules provided that every prospecting licence shall contain such conditions as may in any particular case seem necessary, and shall in all cases contain certain prescribed conditions one of which is that "when the licensee has, before the termination of the period of the licence, applied for the grant of a mining lease, the Collector may further extend the period of the licence until a mining lease is granted or for such time as he may deem fit."
(3.) RULE 33 of these Rules further provided that on or before the determination of his licence the licensee shall have a right, in the case of minerals other than precious stones, "to a mining lease in accordance with the terms contained in the rules for mining leases." These provisions are embodied (in the reverse order) in clauses (1) and (2) of Part IV of the prospecting licence granted to the Association. They read as follows : "(1) During the subsistence of this licence the licensee shall have the right subject to compliance with the said rules to a mining lease in accordance with the said rules in respect of over so much of the said lands as the licensee may desire and the Provincial Government shall think fit to grant and to the first offer of such mining lease in respect of precious stones within the said land as the Government may think fit to grant. (2) If during the term hereby granted, the licensee shall apply in accordance with the said rules for a mining lease on the said lands or any part thereof this licence shall on expiration by effluxion of time of the term hereby granted if the licensee shall by notice in writing to the Collector so require be extended for a further term to end either on the date on which such lease should be granted or on such other date as the Collector shall in his discretion prescribe." On 20 -9 -1948, the Association applied for a mining lease for thirty years. It is not in dispute that the formalities attending the making of this application were observed by the Association. On 14 -6 -1949, the mining lease not having been granted and the term of the prospecting licence being about to expire, the Association applied in writing to the Collector, Dehradun, under Cl. (2) of Part IV of the licence that the period of the prospecting licence be extended to the date of the execution of the mining lease. The term of the Associations prospecting licence was not however extended and no mining lease has been granted, notwithstanding repeated requests therefor made by the Association. ;