B. P. Singh & R. N. Prasad, JJ.- The petitioner-Company, M/s Vikramshila Transformers (pvt.) Ltd, has filed the instant writ application through its Managing Director challenging a condition imposed by the Patna Industrial Area Development Authority for transfer or the lease hold in favour of the petitioner-Company, whereby the petitioner-Company has been called upon to pay the price of the land in question at the new rate. It is the case of the petitioner-Company that the respondent-Authority is bound to transfer the lease hold interest in its favour without insisting for payment of price thereof, since the petitioner-Company has stepped into the shoes of the erstwhile lessee whose rights in the lease hold have been sold and have been purchased by the petitioner-Company.

2. A few facts, which are not in dispute, may be noticed. One M/s Graduate Engineers was registered as' a Small Scale Industry. It took a loan from the Bihar State Financial Corporation to set up an Industry for the manufacture of transformers. By a lease deed executed on 4th May, 1977 by the Governor of Bihar, a lease was granted in favour of M/s Graduate Engineers for a period of 99 years subject to certa