2002 Supreme(Raj) 384
Rajasthan High Court
Honble ARUN KUMAR & PRAKASH TATIA, JJ.
M/s. Ved Prakash Ramesh Chandra & Co. - Appellant
Versus
State & Ors. - Respondents
D.B. Civil Special Appeal No. 401 of 1996
Decided On : March 06, 2002
M.S. Singhvi, J.L. Purohit, B.M. Aggarwal, B.C. Mehta and S.L. Jain, for Appellants- Petitioners R.L. Jangid, M.L. Garg and Ravi Bhansali, for Respondents
Headnote:Rajasthan Agricultural Produce Market Act, 1961, Sec. 6 & 34-A – Allotment of shops constructed by Krishi Upaj Mandi Samiti – State Government issued guidelines – Auctioned shops on the basis of annual rent – Held – Mandis are not established to generate revenue for the State and revenue cannot be sole or main purpose of acquiring land for mandis – Action of the State Government for putting the shops for auction not justified – Directions of the State Government set aside with the direction to constitute a committee to formulate a policy for allotment of shops. (Paras 25 to 28)
The Mandis are not established to generate revenue for the State and revenue cannot be the sole or main purpose of acquiring the land for Mandis. (Para 25)
(2). Before proceeding with the matter, brief history of the controversy between the parties is required to be narrated here.
(3). The learned Single Judge dismissed the 10 writ petitions by common judgment dated 25.4.1996 and other writ petitions were dismissed by the Single Benches following the above decision. The petitioners-appellants have challenged the above judgment by these appeals whereas two writ petitions involving the same point are placed for hearing along with the special appeals and were heard together.
(4). The facts which are not in dispute show that the State Government established Krishi Upaj Mandi Samitis (for short `the Samiti) at Sri Ganganagar and various other places in exercise of powers conferred under Section 6 of the Rajasthan Agricultural Produce Market Act, 1961 (for short the Act of 1961). After declaring the boundaries of the principal market yard at Sri Ganganagar for carrying on business for sale and purchase of the Agricultural produce, the Samiti of Sri Ganganagar constructed shops and invited applications for allotment of the shops to the category of persons who were eligible for allotment of the shops. The State Government also prescribed the guidelines for allotment of the shops in the year 1985. 308 applications were received by the Samiti and a final merit list was prepared on 26.11.1985. Since the applications were more, some of the shops which were of smaller size were also allotted to the food grain dealers with assurance to them to allot bigger shops whenever they would be constructed by the Samiti. After allotment, when 15 allottees either failed to start their business or occupy the allotted shops, they were cancelled. For allotment of these 15 shops, applications were invited vide notice dated 13.10.1986 for which 150 applications were received by the Samiti and 15 persons were allotted these shops by the Samiti. These allotments of 15 shops were challenged by filing various writ petitions by different petitioners on various grounds. The above bunch of writ petitions was categorised as A, B, C, D and E by the learned Single Judge while deciding the writ petitions on 30.7.1991. Against the above judgment dated 30.7.1991, several special appeals were preferred which were decided by the Division Bench consisting of the Honble Chief Justice K.C. Agarwal and Honble Mr. Justice A.K. Mathur on 7.4.1992 along with D.B. Civil Special Appeal No. 284/1991.
(5). The petitioner in D.B. Civil Special Appeal No. 401/96 (S.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 2907/95) is one of the petitioners whose writ petition No. 4816/90 was also decided along with other petitions by the judgment of the learned Single Judge dated 30.7.1991. This petitioner also preferred Writ Petition No. 2907/968 which was also dismissed by the Single Bench which is under challenge in D.B. Special Appeal No. 401/96.
(6). Rest of the special appeals are by the petitioners, facts of which reveal that these petitioners applied