Nazul estates are a distinct category of land held in trust by the government and cannot be alienated in perpetuity. They are managed under specific rules and regulations to generate revenue and support public welfare initiatives.

RAVI S. DHAVAN, J.

( 1 ) THESE cases will be discussed individually. But. they raise an important question of a long forgotten phenomenon of control by Government on an estate known by the expression nazul. Settlements record nazul as an estate, land and property, but there is less modern law available to explain what is the concept of nazul estates. Whatever material is available is virtually lying in the archives of administration and out of use. The administration has forgotten to take guidance from prescribed administrative instructions on how to deal with nazul an estate held by the government, in public trust not as a private preserve. These cases are not about private rights, but public law of public property and the trust in Government to hold it, be it a small nazul shop in a municipal market, a commercial complex or residential. The principles which govern nazul estates are the same.

( 2 ) THESE three writ petitions are in the matter relating to shops, all of them small shops, in the chowk area of the city (south) of Allahabad behind the famous Clock Tower. These shops, referred to by the petitioners or the respondents, are in a demarcated area where existed a municipal market and the hackney carriage stand ; the two adjoining each other. The allotment, lease and the subsequent control of letting, rent and eviction is controlled by a set of rules, known as the Rules for the Grant of Leases of Subzimandi Shops in the Allahabad District (Nazul shops ). [government Order No. 2547/xi, dated 16th July, 1940, as amended by government Order No. 789-A/x1-77-78, dated 17th February, 1942]. These rules were framed in 1940, and will hereinafter be referred to as the Nazul Shop Rules.

( 3 ) ALL such shops within the district of Allahabad are governed by these rules. Thus, any interpretation of the situation will affect a large number of shops, within the district of Allahabad and wherever similar rules operate in other districts of the State. Further, an understanding of what is nazul is basic before the issues are decided. Suffice it to say that there is no issue between the petitioners or the State respondents that whoever may occupy, all these shops are small shops in use by petty shop keepers of modest means. The shops are on nazul land and the property, the shops and the land are nazul in character ; the rules describe it so.

( 4 ) THE resume of short facts of each writ petition are as below : satya Narain Kapoor v. State of U. P. and three others, [writ Petition No. 32605 of 1991].

( 5 ) THIS writ petition was brought to the court after the petitioner, Satya Narain Kapoor, received a copy of the notice from the Collector. Allahabad through the Special Nazul Officer. The notice is addressed to the Administrator, Nagar Mahapalika, Allahabad. This notice is dated 3 June, 1986. On an enquiry in reference to Shops No. 195 and 196 in the Municipal Market, Chowk, in connection with the mutation of the name of the occupier, the Collector indicated his views to the Municipal Corporation. The Collector indicated that the shop was originally allotted to the husband of Mst. Wahidan Bibi. The induction of the petitioner into the premises of the shop was not accepted by the Collector. Drawing the attention of the Nagar Mahapalika. Allahabad that the person who had been inducted not being the legal heir, the mutation sought by the occupier under the Nazul Shop Rules was not possible. It was desired by the Collector that suggestions recommending allotment be made strictly in accordance with the Nazul Shops Rules, aforesaid. The situation, it appears, did not suit Satya Narain Kapoor the occupier, who calls himself a sikmi Kirayedar, and thus, he filed the present writ petition.

( 6 ) IT is on record of the writ petition that an attempt was sought by one Riaz Ahmad for having the shop mutated in his name on the plea that his father Nisar Ahmad, also deceased, had been adopted by Mst. Wahidan Bibi. Thus, Riaz Ahmad contended that he ought t

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