( 1 ) THIS is a petition filed by the Municipal Council, Mandsaur.

( 2 ) ACCORDING to the petitioner, the Mandsaur Municipal Council was first constituted as a body corporate under the provisions of the Gwahor State Municipalities Act, samvat 1993, and the limits of the Mandsaur Municipality were defined under that act. This Act was repealed by the Madhya Bharat Municipalities Act, 1954, which came into force from 10th Jan. , 1954. It is alleged that by virtue of Section 2 of this Act the limits of the Mandsaur Municipality, defined under the Gwahor Act, and the Municipal Committee constituted under that Act were continued as Section 2 of the Madhya Bharat Act provided that it shall be deemed to be constituted under the new Act. The Madhya Bharat Act was repealed by the M. P. Municipalities Act, 1961, which came into force from 1st February, 1962. Section 2 of this Act provides for existing municipalities, and the Mandsaur Municipality continued as if it was constituted under the new Act. It is alleged that Section 24 of the Gwalior Act provided for the acquisition of property by the municipality either by way of transfer in its favour or by other means. According to the petitioner, by circular No. 3 of Samvat 1998, published in the Gwalior Government gazette dated the 23rd March, 1952, the Gwaiior State Government ordered that all open lands within the limits of the municipality, which were not assessed to any land revenue, shall be recorded in the name of the municipal committee in the settlement papers. By this circular in the settlement papers the Mandsaur municipal Committee was recorded as the owner of such lands. These lands which vested in the Municipal Committee under the Gwalior State continued to vest in the Mandsaur Municipal Council after the Madhya Bharat Act came into force and also after the M. P. Municipalities Act came into force. According to the petitioner section 100 of the M. P. Municipalities Act provided for vesting of such lands in the municipal Council. It is allowed by the petitioner that the Khasra entries, copies of which have been filed along with the petition, showing that all such open lands, which were not assessed to land revenue, were recorded as municipal property and they continued to be so recorded until 1966-67. On 10th September, 1964 the state Government issued certain instructions with respect to unoccupied lands lying within the limits of the municipality stating that the Gwalior State Circular, referred to above, did not amount to transfer of all rights of the State in favour of the Municipal Council. It was also stated in these instructions that the possession of such land by the Municipal Council was only administrative or managerial, and they had no absolute power of disposal of such lands. These instructions were issued by the Government to the Collectors of the revenue districts. It is alleged by the petitioner Council that on 27th March, 1965 the Council passed a resolution saying that the open lands within its municipal limits belonged to it by virtue of the gwalior State Circular No. 3, and the Council was entitled to be benefited by transferring such lands by way of sale or lease, and in fact it has been so doing. Along with this resolution, a communication was sent to the Collector, Mandsaur on 5th June, 1965. On 28th September, 1967, the Nazul Officer, Mandsaur Subdivision, mandsaur, wrote to the Tehsildar, Tehsil Mandsaur that the lands lying within the municipal limits of the Mandsaur Municipal Council have been declared by the Collector on 23rd August, 1967 to be Nazul lands and instructed the tehsildar to correct the entries in the revenue papers accordingly. Along with this letter, the Nazul Officer also sent to the Tehsildar a list of unoccupied lands lying within the municipal limits. A copy of this letter was also sent to the petitioner-Council. According to the petitioner, the Council had granted leases from month to month of portions of these unoccupied l