Court No. - 32
Case :- WRIT - C No. - 24769 of 2019 Petitioner :- Rahul Saxena And 26 Others Respondent :- Union Of India And 4 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Sameer Khan Counsel for Respondent :- A.S.G.I.,C.S.C.,Manav Chaurasia
Hon'ble Shashi Kant Gupta,J. Hon'ble Saurabh Shyam Shamshery,J.
Sri Manav Chaurasia, Advocate has put in appearance on behalf of the respondents.
This petition has been filed by the petitioners seeking following reliefs:-
"I. a writ, order or direction in the nature of mandamus commanding the respondents not to interfere in the working of the petitioners as local guides over the Protected Monuments, situate in the City of Agra circle and Agra itself.
II. a writ, order or direction in the nature of mandamus commanding and directing the respondent no.1 to formulate a permanent platform for the working of the local guides over the Protected Monuments.
III. a writ, order to direction in the nature of mandamus commanding and directing the respondent no.1 to provide the permanent license as a local guides for working over the Protected Monuments."
Heard learned counsel for the petitioners and learned Standing Counsel for the State.
Learned counsel for the petitioners has contended that an identical writ petition being Writ C No.52591 of 2017 has already been filed and the Division Bench of this Court has disposed of the said petition with certain directions, vide order dated 15.2.2019, the relevant portion is extracted herein below:-
"We, therefore, dispose of this writ petition with a direction that the petitioners may apply individually for grant of license to the Superintending Archaeologist, Agra-Respondent no.4 or any other Officer of the Archaeological Survey of India who may for the time being have been designated as the Archaeological Survey of India Officer for grant of licenses. Whenever such an application is filed along with the certified copy of this order, before such officer or Respondent no.4, as the case may be, the concerned officer shall consider the claim of each of the petitioner on its own merit having regard to the qualifications and other conditions laid down in the Guidelines from time to time.
There shall be no order as to costs."
In view of the above, considering the aforesaid judgment and order dated 15.2.2019, we direct that petitioners may apply individually for grant of license to the Superintending Archaeologist, Archaeological Survey of India, Agra - respondent no.4 or any other Officer of the Archaeological Survey of India who may for the time being have been designated as the Archaeological Survey of India Officer for grant of licenses. Whenever such an application is filed along with the certified copy of this order, before such officer or respondent no.4, as the case may be, the concerned officer shall consider the claim of each of the petitioners on its own merit expeditiously preferably within two months of production of certified copy of this order having regard to the qualifications and other conditions laid down in the Guidelines from time to time.
With the aforesaid observations, the writ petition stands disposed of.
Order Date :- 30.7.2019 Pkb/