( 1 ) BY means of the petition in hand under Art. 226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner seeks issuance of a writ of certiorari quashing the auction notice dt. 31st Oct. 1992 issued by the District Magistrate, Banda, notifying to the general public that settlement of Sand/moram in district Banda for the year 1992-93 would be done through auction, tender or auction-cum-tender segment-wise (Khand-wise) as stipulated/specified in the impugned auction notice annexed as Annexure 8 to the writ petition.

( 2 ) WE have heard Sri R. C. Srivastava, learned Senior Advocate appearing for the petitioner and the learned Standing Counsel appearing for the respondents.

( 3 ) THE learned counsel appearing for the petitioner urged that the impugned notice enumerates division of district Banda in sixteen segments (Khands) for the purposes of auction sale with a view to granting mining lease in respect of sand/moram in the district of Banda, whereas in the yester years there were 19 different areas, to be settled separately in the Tahsil Banda alone and, urged the learned counsel, division of the district by means of the impugned order into larger areas by clubbing smaller on