# 61:; SATYANARAYANA SINHA v. M/S S. LAL AND COMPANY (PVT.) LTD

- **Citation:** [1974] 1 S.C.R. 615
- **Court:** Supreme Court of India
- **Decided:** 1973-09-10
- **Case number:** Civil Writ Jurisdiction · Case· No. 1121 of 1969
- **Bench:** P. Jaganmohan Reddy, S. N. Dwivedi
- **Source:** https://unisonlegal.in/judgment/supreme-court-of-india/61-satyanarayana-sinha-v-m-s-s-lal-and-company-pvt-ltd-6011
- **Pages:** 6

## Headnote

Practice--CQ11.5tilution of India, 1950, Art .. 226-Writ jurisdiction of lligli
Court--!! can
bt~ invoked by person not aggrieved.
The first resp0-1'.dent filed- a Vt'.rit petition in the High Court challenging the
g1 ant of a mining lease to the appellant. on the g'.round of a direct infringement
of his right to be granted a mining lease over an area for which he applied for
a n1ining lease and which, according to him, formed part of the area for which
the appe'i!ant was given the lease.
But in fact, the first respondent's app1ication \Vas not in respect of any part of the area for which the appellant \Vas.
granted a n1ining lease. Though tht appellant w~s made party to the proceed·
ing, he did not appear as notices were not served on him.
The IIigh Court
aifl;v:ed the petition in the vie\V that there was a violation of s. 31 of the Mines
and Minerals (Regulation and Development) Act, 1957, and rr. 58 and 59 of
the tvlineral Concession Rules 1960.
Allowing the appeal to this Court,
HELD : The first respondent had no interest in the subject-matter of the
lease, and the petition was not maintainable. [618 G-H]
Though this contention was not ur...zed before the High Court as the appellant <lid not appear in the High Court, this Cour:, in appeal,
can not only
determine the soundness of the decision, hilt has jurisdiction to determine any
point raised before it, such as, whether the appeal is competent, whether a party
has a locus standi to present the petition and whether the petitioner was maintainable. Ordinarily, the foundation for exercising the jurisdiction under Article
32 or Article 226, is the perso_nal or individual right of the petitioner himself,
though in cases of writs of habea~ corpus or quo li-'arranto, the rule may be
relaxed.
Jn respect of persons who are not aggrieved and who seek t0 invoke
the jurisdiction of the High Court or this Court, the matter rests ultimately on
the discretion of the Court, and depends on the nature and extent of the right
or interest said to have been infringed and whether the infringement affects the
petitioner in some way. [619 A-B, D, G~H]
In t'he present case, the first. respondent only alleged direct infring~n1ent of
his right, but it was found that no
right of his had been affected.
He was
neither a p;:11ty nor a person aggrieved or aff·ected and hence
had
no
locus
stanflt' to file tfie petition. [620 B~C]
Ebr(/fii111 Ahoobakar and A11other \'.Custodian General of Eracuee Property,
[19521 S.C.R. 696, Chira11jit Lal Chowdhuri
v.
The
U11io11 · of
India.
[ 1950] S. C.R. 869, The State of Orissa v. Mada!I
Gopal
Rungta,
fl9521
S. C.R. 2.8. Tfte Calcutta Gas Con1pa11v ( Proprietar.v) Ltd. v. The Stat(: of
JVe . .,-t lle11[.?af and Others [ 1962] Supp. 3 S. C.R. 1. Godde V enkateswara
·~Rao
v. (iovcn1n1!'11t oj Andhra Pradesh and Others [1966] 2 S.C.R. 172 and R.
v. Tha111es Magiistrates' CouJ't ex. p. Gree11ba1u11, [19571
55 L.C.R.
129---extracted in Y:1rdley Source Book of English Administrative Law, 1970, p. 228,
r<:ferred tL'.

## Text

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61:;
SATYANARAYANA SINHA
v.
M/S S. LAL AND COMPANY (PVT.) LTD.
September 10, 1973
[P. JAGANMOHAN REDDY AND S. N. DWIVEDI, JJ.]
Practice--CQ11.5tilution of India, 1950, Art .. 226-Writ jurisdiction of lligli
Court--!! can
bt~ invoked by person not aggrieved.
The first resp0-1'.dent filed- a Vt'.rit petition in the High Court challenging the
g1 ant of a mining lease to the appellant. on the g'.round of a direct infringement
of his right to be granted a mining lease over an area for which he applied for
a n1ining lease and which, according to him, formed part of the area for which
the appe'i!ant was given the lease.
But in fact, the first respondent's app1ication \Vas not in respect of any part of the area for which the appellant \Vas.
granted a n1ining lease. Though tht appellant w~s made party to the proceed·
ing, he did not appear as notices were not served on him.
The IIigh Court
aifl;v:ed the petition in the vie\V that there was a violation of s. 31 of the Mines
and Minerals (Regulation and Development) Act, 1957, and rr. 58 and 59 of
the tvlineral Concession Rules 1960.
Allowing the appeal to this Court,
HELD : The first respondent had no interest in the subject-matter of the
lease, and the petition was not maintainable. [618 G-H]
Though this contention was not ur...zed before the High Court as the appellant <lid not appear in the High Court, this Cour:, in appeal,
can not only
determine the soundness of the decision, hilt has jurisdiction to determine any
point raised before it, such as, whether the appeal is competent, whether a party
has a locus standi to present the petition and whether the petitioner was maintainable. Ordinarily, the foundation for exercising the jurisdiction under Article
32 or Article 226, is the perso_nal or individual right of the petitioner himself,
though in cases of writs of habea~ corpus or quo li-'arranto, the rule may be
relaxed.
Jn respect of persons who are not aggrieved and who seek t0 invoke
the jurisdiction of the High Court or this Court, the matter rests ultimately on
the discretion of the Court, and depends on the nature and extent of the right
or interest said to have been infringed and whether the infringement affects the
petitioner in some way. [619 A-B, D, G~H]
In t'he present case, the first. respondent only alleged direct infring~n1ent of
his right, but it was found that no
right of his had been affected.
He was
neither a p;:11ty nor a person aggrieved or aff·ected and hence
had
no
locus
stanflt' to file tfie petition. [620 B~C]
Ebr(/fii111 Ahoobakar and A11other \'.Custodian General of Eracuee Property,
[19521 S.C.R. 696, Chira11jit Lal Chowdhuri
v.
The
U11io11 · of
India.
[ 1950] S. C.R. 869, The State of Orissa v. Mada!I
Gopal
Rungta,
fl9521
S. C.R. 2.8. Tfte Calcutta Gas Con1pa11v ( Proprietar.v) Ltd. v. The Stat(: of
JVe . .,-t lle11[.?af and Others [ 1962] Supp. 3 S. C.R. 1. Godde V enkateswara
·~Rao
v. (iovcn1n1!'11t oj Andhra Pradesh and Others [1966] 2 S.C.R. 172 and R.
v. Tha111es Magiistrates' CouJ't ex. p. Gree11ba1u11, [19571
55 L.C.R.
129---extracted in Y:1rdley Source Book of English Administrative Law, 1970, p. 228,
r<:ferred tL'.
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION : Civil Appeal No. 2572 (N) ..if
1972.
Appeal by certifioate from the Judgment and
Order dated 4th
April 1972 of the Patna High Court in Civil Writ Jurisdiction · Case·
No. 1121 of 1969.
~16
S'JPREME COURT REPORTS
[ 19'.(4 j 1 S.C.R.
B. P. Singh, for the appellant.
Lal Narain Sinha, Solicitor General of India and S. P. Nayar, for
respondent Nos. 2 and 6.
D. Goburdhan, for respondents Nos. 3-5,
The Judgmeut of the Conrt was delivered by
JAGANMOHAN REDDY, J, The appellant
was granted a min·
ing lease on August 30, 1969 by the State of Bihar (Respondent 3) ·
with the prior approval of the Central Government (Respondent 2)
for winning a mineral known as Apatite over as area of 1999.634
acres. Respondent 1 filed a writ petition on September
15.,
1969
.challenging the lease on the ground that he had earlier on March 22,
1965, applied for a mining lease over an area of 280.62 acres in
certain villages of Singhbhum District which was
included in
the
lease granted to the appellant, but as no orders were. passed by the
State Government within the statutory period the
application
was
·deemed to have been rejected, He thereafter filed a revision petition
to the Central Government which called for the comments of the
State Government. The State Government intimated to .the Central
<Jovern:nent that it wanted to work the area itself and for that reason
had in fact rejected all the applications for this area including that of
the first respondent. On receipt of •.his comment, the Central Govern-
.men! rejected the revision petition of the first respondent
It appears that the appellant had pursuant to an advertisement in
the newspapers applied along with others for the grant of a mining
lease for phosphatic rock (Apatite) over an area of 4.1 sq. miles in.
village Khajurdari in Singhbhum District. But all the
applications
were rejected as the State Government had by th~n decided to work ·
the phosphatic bearing areas in the public sector. Later, however, as
3rd respondent felt that such a ventnre could be better undertaken by
a private party rather than the State Government in view of the dispersed nature of the deposits, whose concentrated and efficient super·
vision may not be possible through the public sector, it decided to
release the area in question to be worked in the private sector,
Accordingly permission was sought from the Cent~al Government and
an advertisement published in the newspapers for the general infor·
mation of the interested parties who may be willing to set up a bene·
1lcation plant for upgrading the low grade Apatite to ensure its use for
the production of phosphatic fertiliser and who were capable of making
an investment to the extent of Rs. 40 to 50 lakhs. The appellant who
is reported to be financially sound submitted a scheme for setting up
a benefication plant for upgrading the Apatite. In view of the financial
solvency of the appellant his application was recommended to the
Central G9vernment. The Central Gov.ernment accepted this recommendation and directed the grant of the mining lease in. the following
1erms:
·
"The Central Government in the interest of
mineral
development, in exercise of the powers conferred by sub·
rule (2) of rule 58 of the Mineral Concession Rules, 1960,
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s. N. SINHA v. s. LAL Ill. co. LTD. (Jaga111noha11 Reddy,/.)
617
hereby authorise the State Government to g~ant mining. lease
for apatite over the area t~ Dr. Sat~a NarJm Smha without
following the procedure laid down m sub·rule (I) of the
said Rule 58 of the Mineral Concession Rules, 1960.
Further in exercise of the powers conferred by section
31 of the Mines and Minerals (Regulation and Development) Act, 1957, the Central Government hereby
authorise the State Government to grant mmmg lease
to
Dr.
Sinha over the area in question which does not
form
a
compact block.
Th< Central Government also, in exercise of the powers
conferred by l'rov~so t·~ section 6( I) of the
Mines
and
Minerals (Regulat1011 and Development) Act, 1957, authorise the State Government to grant mining lease for apatite
over the μreas to Dr. Sinha in excess of the limit of 10
square mi'les prescribed in section 6(1) and (b) of the said
Act."
Immediately on getting to know of the approval given
by
the
Central Government tci the grant of the mining lease to the appellant.
the first respondent moved the State Government for
a stay
and
though that application was rejected he made several other attempts
but without any success.
The last revision application was filed on
November 17 1970 under r. 54 of the Mineral Concession Ruleshereinafter referred to as 'the Rules' -before the 2nd respondent on
which an order dated November 23, 1971 was passed. TI1is order as
disclosed b_y the !st respondent in his supplementary affidavit shows
that the Central Government had in exercise of their revisional powers.
under r. 55 of the Rules, set aside the orders of the State Govern·
ment and directed it to give further consideration and pass appropriate
orders
within
a
period of four months in as much as the State
Government had not followed the correct procedure in dealing with
1he application of the !st respondent.
At. this stage we may point out that in the writ petition filed by the
first respondent though the appellant was a party it seems he did not·.
appear and the proceeding was ex pane. The appellant's case is that
as no notices were served on him, nor was there any proof of service .
as neither the covers in which the registered notices were sent nor the
acknowl~dg1hent ciards had been returned to the Court. he did
not
have an opportunity to be heard. No doubt the State of Bihar and the
Central Gover~ment had oppose~ .the petition but the High Court came
to the. conclus10n that the cond1t10ns required for relaxation of the
~ules m special cases under s. 31 of the Mines and Minerals (Regula·
t1?n and Development) Act, 1957 (hereinafter termed the Act) read
~1th. rr. 58 & 59 of the Rules, were not complied with while aooord-
,~~ it~ ap_Proval for the grant of the mining lease to the appellant In
t1 is view 1t allowed the petition and quashed the lease in favour. of
t 1e appellant.
the ~;~1a~: j~dis con~ended by the appellant's learned advocate that
1 not ave an opportunity of urging before the Court
-618
'
-
SUPREME COURT REPORTS
[ 197,1] 1 s,c.R.
.that the writ petition filed by the first respondent was not maintainable, because he is not a person aggrieved as the area for which the
lirst respondent had made an application for the grant of mining lease
was not included in the area granted to the appellant. He further
<:ontends that reasons were given by the State of Bibar while recommending the grant of the lease to the Central Government, which
reasons, at any rate one of them as is evident from the order of the
.Central Government, were approved. There is, according to him, no
infringement of the provisions of s. 31 of the Act read with rr. 58 &
59 of the Rules.
The learned Solicitor-General on behalf of the Central Govern·
ment supports the grant of the mining lease to the appellant on the
ground that r. 59 of the Rules is not applicable to the facts of this
case inasmuch as the 3rd respondent had not taken any firm decision
to reserve the area granted to the appellant, which is a necessary
condition of the applicability of that rule. If that rule did not apply
then he submits the procedure prescribed in r. 58 which is referred to
therein need not be complied with. He further submits that even if
r. 59 is applicable, reasons have been recorded by the Central Government for relaxing the Rules as required in s. 31 of the Act.
In so far as. the 3rd respondent-the State of Bihar-is concerned, there has been a volte-face in its stand before us. After having
called for the applications and recommended the lease in favour of the
appellant, and after having placed him in a position where he had to
incur huge expense, it now wants to contend that the grant of the
lease is invalid. Even the first respondent, once he found that the
area for which he applied for a lease was not included in the appellant's lease, seems to have perferred to remain absent in the case, but
the State Government wants to challenge the validity of the lease
which it did not do before the High Court.
There is no doubt, as the High Court has pointed out, that where
by relaxing the Rules the Central Government intends to authorise in
any case the grant, renewal or transfer of any prospecting licence or
mining lease, or the working of any mine for the purpose of se:irching
for or winning any mineral, on terms and conditions different from
those laid down in the Rules made under s. 13 of the Act, it can do
so for reasons to be recorded in writin~. Whether any such reasons
can be said to have been recorded in the order authorising. the grant
of the lease on terms and conditions different from those laid down
in the Rules made under s. 13 of the Act need nof concern us in this
case, because, in our view, as the writ petition has been filed by a
petson who is not the person aggrieved, it is not maintainable.
As already pointed out it is admitted by respondents 2 and 3 that
the application made by the first Iespondent was not in respect of the
area which is granted to the appellant and consequently the fir~t res·
pondent had no interest in the subject-matter of the lease. Even
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I. s. SINHA v. s. LAL & co. LTD. Uaga1u11oha11 Reddy,/.)
619
Uiough this coote.ntion was not urged before 1he High Court, and in
the circumst~ advened to by us could not have been urged,
as ·
the appellant did not appear. this Court in an appeal can not only
deternune the soundness of the deciskm, but has Jurisdiction to deter·
mine any point raised before it, such as whether the appeal. i~ compe·
led, whether a J:.>arly has locus standi to present the petition and
whether the petiUon is maintainable etc. See Ebrahim Aboobakar and
Another v. Custodian General of Evacuee Property('). Jn Chiranjit
Lal Clwwdhuri v. The Union of India(') it was held by this Court
dlllt the le¢ right that can be enforced under Art. 32 must ordinarily
be the right' of the petitioner himself who complains of infraction of
such right and approaches the Court for relief. In respect of the
jurisdiction under Art. 226 of the Ooostitution it was laid down in
The State of Ori 0sa v. Modan Gopal Rungta(') that the existence of ·
the rii;irt is the (oundation of the exercise of jurisdiction of .the
Court under Art. 226 of the Constitution. The right to which this
Court had adverted as being the foundation for exercising the jurisdiction under Art. 32 or Art. 226 of the Constitution, acoording to
The Calcutta Gas Company (Proprietary) Ltd. v. The State of West
Bengal and Others (') is onJinarily the personal or individual right of
the petitioner himself, though in the case of some of the writs like
habeas corpus or quo warranto this rule may have to be relaxed or
modified. Subba Rao, J., as he then was, observed in that case :
"Article 226 confers a very wide power on the High
Court to issue directions and writs of the nature mentioned
therein for the enforcement of any of the rights conferred
by Part Ill or for any other purpose. It is, therefore, clear
that persons other than those claiming fundamental rights
can also approach the court seeking a relief thereunder."
After citing the above passage in Godde Venkateswara Rao v.
Governtn!!nt of Andhra Pradesh and Others(') the learned Judge
who delivered the judgment in this case also observed at p. 181 ;
"A personal right need not be in respect of a proprie·
tary interest : it can also relate to an interest of a trustee.
That apart,
in exceptional
cases,
as the expression
"ordinary" indicates,. a person who has been prejudicially
affected by an act or omission of an authority can file
a
writ even though he has no proprietary or even fiduciary
interest in the subject-matter thereof."
In respect of persons who are strangers and who seek to invoke the
jurisdiction of the High Court or of this Court, difficulty sometimes
arises because of the nature and extent of the right or interest which
is said to have been infringed, and. whether the infringement in some
way affects such persons. On this aspect there is no clear enunciation
of principles on which the Court will exercise its juiisdiction.
(1) [1952[ S. C. R. 696;
(2) [1950] S. C. R. 869.
(3) [1952] S. C. R. 28.
(4) [1%2] Supp, 3 s. c. R. t.
(5) [1966] 2 S. C. R. 172.
·
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5UPREME COURT REPORTS
[ 197.4 l 1 s.c.R.
In England also the Courts have taken the view that when the
appiication is made by a party or by a person aggrieved the Court
will intervene ex debito justitias, in' justice to the applicant, and when
it is made by a stranger the Court considers whether the public
interest demands its intervention. In either case it is a matter which
rests ultimately in the discretion of the Court: (see R. v. Thames
Magistrates' Court, ex. p. Greenbaum(!).
In this case, however, the first respondent has not challenged the
grant of the lease on the ground of ex debito justitiae but has done so
on the ground of a direct infringement of his right to be granted a
mining lease over 280.62 acres for which the appellant was given a
lease along with other area. Since it is now found that no such right
Of the. first respondent has been affected, he has no locus standi. He
is nei.ther a party nor a person aggrieved or affe.cted and consequently
his writ petition in the High Court is not maintainable.
On this short ground, this appeal will be allowed
and the writ
petition filed by the first respondent.in the High Court dismissed. The.
appellant will have his costs only against the State of Bihar.
V.P.S.
Appia! allowed.
(I) (1957) 55 L.C.R. 129-extracted in Yardley Source Book of English
Administrative Law, 1970, p. 228).
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