- (1.) THIS is an application under Order 45, Rule 13, C. P. C. , by firm Girja Prasad Sunder Lal, whose writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution was dismissed on 3-2-1955 and a special appeal against that order was summarily dismissed on 11-4-1955. The petitioner firm then applied for a certificate for appeal to the Supreme Court and preferred at the same the present application.
(2.) THE petitioner obtained on 8-4-1953 for a period of seven years a theka from the Raja of singrauli for collection of tendu leaves for manufacture of bins from a forest in Mirzapur district. The provisions of the U. P. Zamindari Abolition and land Reforms Act, 1951, which came into force on 26-1-1951, were extended to the area in question on 1-7-1953, and, as the right, title and interest of the Raja vested in the State under Section 6 of that Act, and as the theka had been effected after 8-8-1946, the Divisional Forest Officer concerned issued on 29-11-1953 a notification under Section 8 nullifying such thekas and calling upon the thekadars to enter into fresh contracts with him. Negotiations in this regard between the petitioner firm and the Forest Officer having failed, the right to collect leaves was auctioned and purchased by Behari Lal on 9-4-1953 at Rs. 2,000/- per annum. It is a matter of controversy whether the purchase by Behari Lal was only for that year or for a period of four years.
(3.) ON 20-4-1954 the firm filed a writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution against the divisional Forest Officer and the State of Uttar Pradesh for a writ or direction to restrain them from interfering with the petitioner's right. An interim order to that effect was issued the same day which was to remain in force till the end of June, 1954, on condition of the petitioner depositing Rs. 2,500/-with the Divisional Forest Officer. The season of collection of the leaves is in May and June every year. On 27-7-1954 Behari Lal made an application to be impleaded as a respondent, which application was allowed the same day that the writ petition was dismissed, i. e. , on 3-2-1955. Before that the interim order had been vacated on 17-1-1955 as having exhausted itself. The writ petition was dismissed because the contentions of the petitioner that Section 6 did not apply to the forest or the theka in Question were found untenable. The petitioner sought to raise another plea at the time of arguments, namely, that the area in question did not constitute an "estate" as defined in Section 3 (8), but he was not permitted to do so. The same pleas were unsuccessfully raised by the petitioner in a special appeal which, as adverted to above, was summarily dismissed on 11-4-1955.;