Court No. - 40
Case :- WRIT - C No. - 36032 of 2018 Petitioner :- M/S Girdhar Cements Ltd. Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 2 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Virendra Kumar Jaiswal Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.
Hon'ble Amreshwar Pratap Sahi,J. Hon'ble Ajit Kumar,J.
Heard learned counsel for the petitioner and learned Standing Counsel.
The petitioner had a quarry lease of plot no. 5593-Ka area 1.15 acres for 10 years. According to the respondents, on a surprise check on 29.05.2018 by Joint Survey Team, it was found through G.P.S. reading method that the petitioner had quarried stone beyond the area prescribed in the lease deed and consequently he was called upon to deposit the royalty as well as the penalty on such unauthorized mining under the notice dated 01.06.2018.
The petitioner gave a reply on 14.07.2018 and it was urged that physical verification should be carried out as the G.P.S. survey conducted does not conform to the correct position of measurement on the spot and secondly, a reference was made to the objections being raised by an adjacent tenure holder of plot no. 5597. It was also stated in the explanation that the said objection was attended to by carrying out measurement by the Sub-Divisional Officer, whereupon it was found that the petitioner was carrying out his mining authorities within the prescribed limit of the area of the lease.
The impugned notice calling upon the petitioner to make good the deficiency after considering the said reply, is under challenge before this Court contending that the reply of the petitioner has not been considered nor any reason has been given for carrying out physical verification.
Having considered the same, we find that the respondent District Magistrate, Sonbhadra has proceeded to call upon the petitioner to deposit the royalty and the penalty without giving any reason as to why physical verification was not possible and secondly why was there no consideration of the reply given by the petitioner, particularly, the fact with regard to survey having been carried out by the Sub-Divisional Officer while attending the complaint of tenure holder of plot no. 5597.
We, therefore, dispose of this writ petition with a direction to the District Magistrate, Sonbhadra to consider the aforesaid two aspects of the matter and pass an appropriate order and then proceed to enforce or otherwise withdraw the notice dated 07.08.2018, as the case may be, upon passing of such order which shall be done within a period of six weeks from the date of a representation being filed along with a certified copy of this order.
Order Date :- 30.10.2018 IrfanUddin