( 1 ) THIS petition has been filed by the Municipal Corporation, Indore, challenging the orders of Collector, Indore, and Commissioner, Indore Division, directing that open pieces of land within the limits of the Indore Municipal Corporation shall be managed by the Nazul Officer.

( 2 ) IN this petition, the petitioner contends that the Indore Municipal Corporation is constituted in accordance with Section 7 of the Madhya Pradesh Municipal corporation Act, 1956, and is under the provisions of that Act a legal person. It is alleged that initially the Indore municipality was constituted under the Indore municipality Act, 1909. Under this Act, all the open lands within the limits of the Indore municipality vested in the municipality and were under its management. According to the petitioner, this was provided for in Section 36 of the Indore Act. By virtue of that provision, the Indore municipality was managing the open lands by leasing them out and issuing licences under the bye-laws. It is also submitted that under the Indore Act the Holkar State Government had framed rules and byelaws for the management of these open lands within the municipal limits by the municipality, and the Revenue Department had no control op power about the management of these lands. It is further stated that in the year 1954 when the indore Act was replaced by the M. B. Municipalities Act, 1954, and this municipality was converted into a Municipal Corporation under the M. B. Municipal corporation Act, 1956, during these changes the properties that had vested in the municipality continued to so vest under the M. B. Municipalities Act as also under the M. B. Municipal Corporation Act. The petitioner further stated that in June, 1917, by an order passed by the Holkar State Government, all open lands and sites within the municipal limits were transferred to the municipalities concerned except any land which formed private property of any person or a property in exclusive possession of any department of the State. A copy of this order notified under a notification is also filed with the petition. It is further contended that the indore municipality developed these open lands into house-sites and leased them out for respective purposes and also issued licences for the use of these lands, and at no time the Government had anything to do with the said lands. The petitioner further stated that in the year 1961 the M. B. Municipal Corporation. Act was replaced by the M. P. Municipal Corporation Act and the provisions of this new Act were identical with those of the M. B. Act. Under Section 82 of the M. P. Municipal corporation Act, the properties vested in a municipal corporation have been mentioned. It is contended that this provision protected the rights of the municipality under which these properties had vested in it earlier and even under the M. P. Act the properties continued to vest in the petitioner Corporation. According to the petitioner, Section 80 of the M. P. Municipal Corporation Act also provided for the manner in which open lands were to be managed by the corporation and thus the scheme of this Act also indicates that these open lands vested in the Municipal Corporation. The petitioner submitted that after 1964 the government raised a controversy claiming these open lands to be Nazul lands and saying that they could be managed by the Nazul Officer. There were certain departmental instructions to that effect issued by the Government Consequently, according to the petitioner, the Collector, District Indore, wrote a letter to the commissioner, Indore Municipal Corporation, challenging the right of the corporation to dispose of some of these open plots of land by the Corporation. This resulted in an exchange of correspondence, and a representation was made to the Collector on 8th November, 1968. The Revenue Commissioner, Indore division, sent an order to the Administrator, Municipal Corporation, Indore, directing that no new leases should be gi