JUDGMENT

CHANDRACHUD, J.:—Certain lands situated in Usmanpur and Dariyabad in the district of Allahabad are in the possession of the appellant, some as a Bhumidhar, some as a Sirdar and some as a hereditary tenant. The lands abut on the Jamuna river and are submerged by the river water when the river is in flood. When the flood recedes large quantities of stand, gravel, boulders and bajris are deposited on the surface of the lands. The appellant lays claim to the deposits left behind by fluvial action of the river contending that since he is the owner of the lands or is otherwise entitled to an unrestricted user of the lands, he would be entitled to appropriate the deposits to the exclusion of all others.

2. The Mines and Minerals Department, Government of Uttar Pradesh, took steps in about 1970 to sell by auction the right to remove the sand, gravel and bajris deposited on the appellant s lands. On October 13, 1970 the appellant made an application to the Officer-in-charge, Mines, Allahabad, objecting to the proposed auction on the ground that the Government had no right to deal with this property in a manner detrimental to his title. On February 18, 1971 the Department of Mines passed an order directing the disposal of the deposits by an auction-sale.

3. In October, 1971 the appellant filed a writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution in the Allahabad High Court asking that the aforesaid order of the State Government be quashed and that the State Government be restrained from bringing the fluvial deposits to sale by auction or otherwise. On behalf of the respondents, the Naib Tehsildar (Mines), Allahabad, filed a counter-affidavit stating that the appellant had no right of any kind to utilise the deposits left by the flood waters on his lands, that the State Government had sold the deposits by auction from 1965 to 1969 to which the appellant had raised no objection, that the deposits of sand, garvel, bajris etc. were `minor minerals to which the title vested in the State Government and that the only right of the appellant was to receive damages which the State Government always awarded under Rule 67 of the Uttar Pradesh Minor Minerals (Concession) Rules, 1963.

4. The writ petition came for hearing before a learned single Judge who dismissed it by his judgment dated April 2, 1974, following a previous decision of the Allahabad High Court in Sultan v. State of U.P. (Civil Misc. Writ No. 8268 of 1971 decided on 28-9-1973). The appellant filed an appeal before a Division Bench of the High Court which was dismissed on September 20, 1974. The Division Bench merely followed the decision in Sultan s case which had taken the view that sand, gravel, boulders, bajris etc. deposited on lands abutting on rivers, as a result of fluvial action of a river vest in the State Government. The High Court has, however, granted a certificate of fitness to the appellant to appeal to this Court.

5. Under Section 4 of the U. P. Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act, 1 of 1951, all estates 1395 situated in U. P. vested in the State Government free from all encumbrances, with effect from the date specified by the Government in a notification issued for that purpose. Section 6 of the Act of 1951 deals with the consequences of such vesting and provides that on the publication of a notification under Section 4, all rights, title and interest under Section 4, all rights, title and interest of all the intermediaries shall cease and be vested in the State of U. P., free from all encumbrances. Clause (a) of Section 6 which brings about this result consists of two sub-clauses (i) and (ii). Under Section 6(a) (i), "all rights, title and interest of all the intermediaries in every estate" ceased and became vested in the State of U. P., while under Section 6(a) (ii), "all rights, title and interest of all intermediaries in all sub-soil in such estates including rights, if any, in mines and minerals" ceased and became vested in the State of U. P. These pr