Bazar vesting under land reform law: commercial market complexes are not homesteads and pass to the State.

Commercial market complexes or bazars held by an intermediary vest in the State under Section 4(a) of the Bihar Land Reforms Act, because the provision carries with it interests in hats, bazars, melas and allied sairati interests subject only to express statutory savings. Section 5 protects homesteads, but a homestead is a dwelling house used for residence or letting out with its appurtenant land, not rows of shops or premises continuously used for buying and selling. Reading the Act as a whole, the statute distinguishes saved homesteads from vested bazars, and the fact that shops existed on the land or that rents were collected does not change the commercial character of the property.

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Issues: Whether the commercial complexes known as bazars or markets fell within Section 4(a) of the Bihar Land Reforms Act and vested in the State on publication of the vesting notification, and whether such properties could be treated as homesteads saved under Section 5 of the Act.

Analysis: Section 3 of the Act brought about vesting of the estate, and Section 4(a) expressly carried with it the proprietor's or tenure-holder's interests in hats, bazars, melas and allied sairati interests, subject only to the interests expressly saved by the Act. Section 5 preserved homesteads, but a homestead was a dwelling house used for residence or letting out, with its appurtenant land and structures, and not a commercial complex used for regular buying and selling. Reading Sections 4, 5, 6, 7, 7A, 7B and 7C together, the Act drew a distinction between saved homesteads and vested bazars. The complexes in question consisted of rows of shops and were continuously used as markets for commercial activity; they were not dwelling houses merely because shops had once stood on the land or because rents were collected periodically. The statutory scheme also showed that the Act did not confine vesting of bazars to rural areas or periodical village hats; it covered bazars as commercial markets wherever they were held by the intermediary.

Conclusion: The bazars or market complexes were held to be covered by Section 4(a) and vested in the State, and they were not protected as homesteads under Section 5.

Final Conclusion: The challenge to the vesting of the market complexes failed, and the Full Bench view sustaining the State's claim was affirmed.

Ratio Decidendi: Under the Bihar Land Reforms Act, a bazar means a commercial market complex held by the intermediary, and such bazars vest in the State under Section 4(a); they are not homesteads merely because shops or structures exist on the land or because the property was once used for residential purposes.

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