Bapna, J.—This is a petition under Art. 226 of the Constitution of India.

2. The petitioner, Bhairon Lal, is a halwai and has his shop in the main market of Rampura Bazar at Kotah. He purchased a strip of land 20X5 in front of his shop on the 16th February, 1954, from the Municipal Board and on the same day the Board granted him permission to remodel his shop and to construct a varandah in front of the same. The petitioner started his construction. On 18.3.54 respondent No. 4, Rameshwar Dayal Saxena, General Secretary of the District Congress Committee, wrote to the. Sub-Divisional Officer to stop the construction as according to him the petitioner was encroaching upon the Government land and had started his construction beyond the line of the Gandhi Bhawan (Town Hall). The Sub-Divisional Officer purporting to act for the Collector passed an order on the same day stopping the construction and directed the petitioner to show cause on the 22nd of March 1954, why the order be not made absolute. On the 22nd March, 1954, the Executive Engineer, Public Works Department, Mr. V. R. Bhatnagar, also gave notice to the petitioner to stop the construction as he was thereby) encroaching upon the Government land and no permission had been obtained from the Public Works Department. The Collector was then on tour and when he returned he inspected the site, heard the parties and was of the opinion that the proposed construction was not beyond the line of the various building on the road and that under sec. 48 of the Rajasthan Town Municipalities Act, 1951, all public streets and pavements, stones and other materials thereof, and also all trees, erections, materials, implements and things provided for such stress became the property of the Municipality and there was no cause to interfere. But he observed that as an objection had been raised by the Executive Engineer, the matter may be settled at higher level and submitted the case to the Secretary to the Local Self Government Department and directed that the stay order should continue till a reply is received from the Government.

3. The petitioner has come to this court and has urged that the Sub-Divisional Officer and the Collector had been led to act under pressure from Mr. Rameshwar Dayal Saxena, who was the General Secretary of the District Congress Committee and this gentleman had ill-will because the various candidates set up by the Congress in the local elections had been defeated and the petitioner happened to be in the opposite camp. The respondent No. 4, the Administrator of the Municipal Board, supported the sale and the permission granted to the petitioner for constructing a varandah and has left it to the other respondents to reply about the interference in the construction Respondent No. 1, Collector, said that he did not know about the machinations of the General Secretary of District Congress Committee but he continued the stay order passed by the Sub-Divisional Officer, as a claim had been made by an important Officer of the Government, namely, the Executive Engineer, that the property of which the petitioner had been granted permission belonged to the Government, and as he was unable to say whether the land belonged to the Government or to the municipality, he made a reference to the Government and continued the stay order in order to stop the breach of the peace of injury or annoyance to the public. No reply has been filed by Mr. V. R. Bhatnagar. Executive Engineer, Mr. Rameshwar Dayal Saxena and Mr. Damodar Lal, Sub-Divisional Officer.

4. The Sub-Divisional Officer is not authorised to interfere in any matter connected with the municipality and although he purported to act for the Collector in his absence, no order has been produced to show that he was authorised at the time to act as Collector. The Collectors power to interfere on which reliance is. placed is contained in sec. 195 of the Rajasthan Town Municipalities Ac, 1951, which is as follows :—

"195. Power of suspending ex

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