Hon'ble Dr. Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud, Chief Justice
Hon'ble Dilip Gupta, J.
The petitioners before the Court are “Local Level Tourist Guides” who have sought a mandamus to allow them to work as Tourist Guides for protected monuments governed by the Archaeological Survey of India and other monuments situated in the city of Agra.
At the present stage, the controversy relates to the work of Tourist Guides in relation to monuments covered by the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958 (24 of 1958). The controversy in the present proceedings is covered by a judgment of the Division Bench in Santosh Baghel v. Union of India Civil Misc. Writ Petition No. 28274 of 2012. While disposing of the petitions, the Division Bench issued the following directions:-
“a) Ministry of Tourism, Union of India, is directed to frame guidelines within six months for issuance of a licence for a local guide who is proficient in the Hindi language and such other languages as depicted in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India which would cater to the domestic market.
b) Till such time, the guidelines are not framed and licences to a local guide are not issued, all the respondents are restrained from interfering in the working of the petitioners as local guides in the protected monuments, which is declared by or under law made by Parliament to be of national importance.
(c) As and when licences are issued to local guides, steps would be taken by the respondents to ensure that touts, fraudulent, unlicensed guides or decided on 7 March 2012 any other unauthorised person(s) are not permitted for the purpose of taking the visitors around the protected monuments for a monetary consideration.”
When the petition came up before the Court on the previous occasion, an adjournment was granted in order to enable the learned A.S.G to seek instructions on the position of the Union Government in relation to the decision of the Division Bench. During the course of the hearing, learned A.S.G has placed on the record a communication dated 7 July 2014 of the Assistant Director General of the Union Government in the Ministry of Tourism stating that the Ministry of Tourism is working on framing guidelines for issuance of license to local guides proficient in Hindi and other languages referred to in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution which would cater to the domestic market. The Court has been informed that the Government would stand by its e-mail dated 22 April 2014. The e-mail dated 22 April 2014 is also taken on record and inter alia states that the Union Government is accepting the decision of the Division Bench.
In view of the aforesaid position, which has been adopted before the Court by the Union Government, we dispose of the petition in terms of the judgment dated 7 March, 2014 since it has been stated before the Court that the Union Government has accepted the decision and is implementing the directions.
The writ petition is, accordingly, disposed of.