Tyagi, J.—These are two writ petitions giving rise to a common question of law ; therefore, we propose to dispose them of by one judgment.

2. Writ petition No. 197 of 1962 is filed by Messrs Brick Manufacturing Co., Bhadra a partnership firm. The facts of this case are that the petitioner firm purchased a piece of agricultural land comprising of Khasra No. 330 measuring 5 bighas and 3-1/2 biswas in village Bhadra, and after obtaining permission, and entering into an agreement with the State of Rajasthan under the Rajasthan Minor Mineral Concession Rules, it started manufacturing bricks by constructing a brick-kiln on the said land. The lease granted by the Mining Engineer to the petitioner firm was renewed every year and the petitioners contention is that it is holding a lease which is valid up to 31st of March, 1963. The petitioner wanted to extend its kiln and, therefore, an application was made by the petitioner firm to the Deputy Commissioner Colonisation, Hanumangarh, for further allotment of land measuring 9 bighas 1 biswa. This application of the petitioner was published by the Tehsildar Colonisation for inviting objections, but instead of granting land to the petitioner, Naib-Tehsildar Colonisa-tion, Nohar, intimated the petitioner firm about the order of the Deputy Commissioner Colonisation requiring the petitioner to stop the manufacturing of bricks in Khasra No. 330 forthwith, and if the petitioner failed to obey his order then under Secs. 22 and 24 of the Rajasthan Colonisation Act, 1954 (hereinafter referred to for the sake of brevity as the Colonisation Act) possession of the land in dispute would be taken over by the Government. The letter of the Naib Tehsildar dated 2nd April, 1962 has been placed on record by the petitioner and is marked as Ex. 5. It was against this order of the Naib-Tehsildar that the petitioner has filed this writ petition challenging the validity of the impugned order on the ground that the Naib Tehsildar or any other officer of the Colonisation Department had no jurisdiction to pass such order. The petitioner further averred that it was carrying on its business under a valid lease granted to it by the Mines and Geological Department of the Government of Rajasthan under Rajasthan Minor Mineral Concession Rules and, therefore, authorities of the Colonisation Department had no jurisdiction to interfere and pass the impugned order to restrain the petitioner from manufacturing bricks on the land owned by the firm.

3. The second writ petition No. 184 of 1962 is filed by Liladhar petitioner with an averment that the land comprising of Khasra No. 331 at Bhadra measuring 22 Kilas was allotted to him by the Director of Colonisation, Hanumangarh, on 24th of January, 1957, and he was permitted to construct a brick-kiln on the said land. The petitioner also obtained a mining lease under the Rajasthan Minor Mineral Concession Rules from the Mining Engineer, Bikaner, and after having invested a sum of Rs. 25,000/- he started manufacturing bricks for which he regularly paid royalty to the Mines and Geological Department under the terms and conditions of the said lease. It is also stated by the petitioner that the period of the lease granted by the Mining Engineer in favour of the petitioner would expire on 31st of March, 1963, and till then he is entitled under the lease to manufacture bricks on the disputed land. It is also disclosed that in 1957 a dispute was raised by one Hansraj about the allotment of the said land to the petitioner, and the Director of Colonisation, thereupon cancelled the allotment of the land and ordered that the bricks manufactured by the petitioner be confiscated, but the dispute was set at rest by the High Court on 1st August, 1958 in writ petition No. 143 of 1957 by setting aside that order of the Director of Colonisation. It was also made clear in that judgment that the Colonisation Officer had no jurisdiction to interfere in the matter of mining leases and held that it was wit

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