TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1996 (4) TMI 446
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....Abid Imam by his predecessor Zamindar. Sayed Hassan Imam had constructed several shops in 4 plots of the land and let them out to diverse tenants on monthly rentals. there are as many as 132 shops known as Patna Market in Patna, The estate has been given Touzi no. I-21 by the Collector at Patna. Notifications under sections, 3, 3A and 3B of the Act were published on January 1, 1956. The Deputy Collector, Lend reforms, after following the procedure under the Act by order dated August 10, 1968 dismissed the appeal. The appellant, Sayed Hasan Imam filed a writ petition in the High Court which was dismissed by the Full Bench pending appeal, he died and his legal representatives have been brought on record. The appellants claimed in the writ petition that the shops are "homestead" within the meaning of Section 2( j) of the Act. They do not vest in the State and, therefore, they remain to be the property of the appellants. Similar are the facts in all other cases. Therefore, it is not necessary to narrate the facts of all the cases separately. The Full Bench has held that by operation of the notifications under Section 3, 3A and 3B of the Act the bazars stand vested in the State . It h....
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....re used primarily as office or cutchery for the collection of revenue of such an estate or tenure and his interests therein stand vested in the State. Shops are used for commercial purpose in urban areas, in contra distinction to those in rural area. The legislature was aware of this distinction between the English language used for market and that used towards bazar in Hindi language employed in Section 4(a), i.e., hats, bazars and melas commonly known in rural India as part of the State. It would indicate that the Intermediary conducts hats, bazars and melas not as a regular business or avocation but as periodical bazars and collects tolls from the occupants in the hats or bazars, be it for a day in a week or bi-weekly bazars. Bazars mean rural bazars but not commercial shops in urban towns governed by the Rent Control Act. The homestead includes any building let out on rent. lt is not necessary that such buildings should be in persona] occupation for residence of the intermediary/tenure-holders. The Act does not intend to divest right, title and interest in such hats or bazars held by intermediary nor vests the same in the State. Only those bazars, run in rural villages as incid....
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....n 4(a) must be construed in its etymological sense The Act does not intend to have partial vesting of Touzi situated in rural area while excluding urban area. Under the Act, the concept of rural or urban estate was neither intended nor contemplated. On publication of the notification under Section 3, the totality of the right, title and interest held by an intermediary in touzi stands abolished. by operation of Section 4(a), it stands vested in the State. Homestead is distinguished from bazar. The shops are not used for the purpose of dwelling, though it is not necessary that intermediary should use the shops personally for dwelling. If it is held that the bazars are markets. it is enough that Section 4(a) of the Act stands attracted. Holding of the bazar connotes having possession, but not conducting business like hats or melas. The legislature has used the three expressions with the intention to cover all the three activities, namely, conducting malas at periodical festive occasions or weekly hats, be it in rural or Urban areas or "bazars"; the expression bazars" used as a systematic and organized commercial activity which would come within the sweep of Section 4(a) of the Act. C....
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....respect of a matter mentioned in Entry 18 of List II. Mahajan, J. with whom Mukherjee and Chandrasekhara Aiyar, JJ. had concurred, held that the dominant purpose of the Act is the transference to the State of the interest of proprietors and tenure holders in land and of the mortgages and lessees of such interests including the interests in trees, forests, fisheries, jalkars, ferries, hats, bazars. mines and minerals. The law relates to several items in the legislative list, that is, rights in or over lend and also property. The pith and substance of the legislation is the transference to the State of the interest of the proprietor and tenure Holders and acquisition of estate within Entry 36 of List II, as it stood then There is no scheme of land reform within the framework of the statute except as a pious hope expressed that commission may produce it. The Bihar Legislature was competent to make the law on the subject of transference of estate and such transfer under the Act is constitutionally valid. It was also further held that the concentration of big blocks of land in the hands of a few individuals is contrary to the principle on which the Constitution of India is based. The pu....
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....3(1) of the Act. Section 4(a) envisages vesting of such an estate or tenure including the interest of the proprietor or tenure-holder as under: "Such estate or tenure including the interests of the proprietor or tenure-holder in any building or part of building comprised in such estate or tenure and used primarily as office or cutchery for the collection of rent of such estate or tenure, and his interests in trees, forests, fisheries, jelkars, hats, bazars, mela and ferries and all other sairati interests, as also his interest in all sub-soil including any rights in mines and minerals, whether discovered or undiscovered, or whether been worked or not, inclusive of such rights of a lessee of mines and minerals comprised in such estate or tenure (other then the interests of raiyats or raiyats) shall, with effect from the date of vesting, vest absolutely in the State free from all incumbrances and such proprietor or tenure-holder shall cease to have any interests in such state or other than the interests expressly saved by or under the provisions of this Act." It would thus be seen that the pre-existing right, title or interest of the intermediary in the estate or tenure including i....
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....ing was explained to be a dwelling house. It would be clear that dwelling house encompassed under Section 5, is one compact block enjoyed partly for non-residential add partly for non-residential and other allied purposes mentioned therein. Its occupation, use and enjoyment alone was saved from vesting so that the intermediary should retain the interest of the homestead and remain in possession or enjoyment as a tenant. The statute conferred it as a new right. The determination of the rent has been envisaged under the rules. It also envisages that the rights under Section 5 are subject to the rights of the State under Sections 7A and 7B. Therefore, it would be clear that subject to the operation of Sections 7A and 7B, the homestead shall be deemed to be settled on the intermediary/tenure-holder and the intermediary would retain possession of the land and buildings and other interests comprised in such homestead and he would hold it as a tenant under the State. If a part of it is let out to the tenant, the right of the intermediary/tenure-holder to negotiate the rent payable in respect of the portion let out is divested and the rent payable by the tenant would be determined by the D....
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.... the land standing thereon would stand vested in the State free from all encumbrances. Similarly, Section 7B excludes the operation of Sections 5, 6, and 7 in respect of melas which were being held by the intermediary at any time within 3 years of the date of vesting and states that the right to hold such melas on such land shall with effect from the date of vesting, vest in the State though the intermediary who was conducting such melas prior to the aforesaid time. In Rameshwar Patil Narain Singh's case the constitutionality of vesting and consequence of vesting of melas was upheld. A conjoint operation of these provisions in unmistakable terms would establish that on and from the date of publication of the notification under Section 3, the totality of the right, title and interest held by an intermediary or tenure-holder in hats and bazars stands extinguished and vested in the State free from all encumbrances. The consequence of the abolition of the estate is transference of the entire estate from the intermediary to the State subject to the exceptions and new interests created under the relevant provisions of the Act. All the intermediary rights and other saraiti interests and a....
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....th an inner enclosure used for residential quarters, garages, kitchens, clubs, dispensaries, rest houses, out houses, office buildings, tubewell and water tank, godown, cattle shed, weightage house etc. The question therein was: whether 71 bighas and odd land on which residential bungalow etc. stood was homestead? The High Court and the Tribunals held that the aforesaid land was used for factory. They stood vested in the State and, therefore, they are not liable to fixation of reasonable rent under Section 7(1) of the Act. This Court pointed out the distinction between "used as" and "used for" and had held that since the land over which the building stood was used as quarters etc. they stood excluded from Section 4(a) and required determination of fair rent under Section 7. In that behalf, it was held that sub- section (1) of Section 7 applies only to such buildings or structures together with the land on which they stand which are used for golas, factories or mills for the purpose of trade, manufacture or commerce or used for storing grains, keeping cattle or implements for the purpose of agriculture. The expression employed by the legislature is "used for golas, factories or mill....
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.... in a civil suit. The courts granted the decree but the High Court reversed the decree. On appeal, this Court had held that on publication of the notification under Section 3, the lands stood vested in the State. The pre-existing right, title and interest held by the appellants stood ceased. They cannot, therefore, claim khas position of the lands in occupation of the tenants. In Smt. Labanya Bala Devi v. State of Bihar Patna Secretariat, Patna & Anr. [(1994) Supp. 3 SCC 725 ] the tank and tankail settled by the intermediary were held to have been vested in the State after the Act had come into force. Therefore, the pre-existing rights of the tenure- holder in the tank, stood ceased since they were not saved under Section 6 [1] [b] of the Act. It would thus be clear that on and with effect from the date of the publication of the notification under Section 3, the totality of the right, title and interest held by an intermediary stands abolished. The consequences thereof, as enumerated in Section 4 (a), is extinguishment of the pre- existing right, title and interest over the entire estate including the enumerated items in Section 4(a) which include hats and bazars in the State and ....
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....int operation of Sections 3 and 4(a) and in contra- distinction of the remainder rights of the intermediary/tenure-holder preserved under Sections 5 to 7, the conclusion becomes inevitable that the hats or bazars held by the intermediary vested under Section 3 in the State and the intermediary/tenure-holder stood divested of them and the pre-existing right, title and interest therein ceased. Even if we were to find that the word "hold" used in Section 7A means "conduct", it would make no difference. If the intermediary has conducted a hat or bazar upon land which vests in the Stats within the stated period, the right to conduct the hat or bazar also vests in the State. The real question then is: whether hats or bazars, are synonymous of market commonly understood in common language or is a hat or bazar as understood in oriental language of conducting daily or bi-weekly or weekly bazar etc? The thrust and emphasis by the learned counsel for the appellants is founded on: (1) the distinction between hats and bazars held in rural India and urban areas; (2) the bazars, as understood in the common parlance, in the rural areas. Having given our very deep and anxious considerations to the ....
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....resume, on the premise that it is a local enactment, that the learned Judges are better informed of the connotation meaning and purport of the Hindi words "hat" or 'bazar' used in the Act in contra-distinction to the English words. The Full Bench unanimously is of the view that the word "bazar" is no other then the "market" in English language. The entire thrust of the arrangement addressed in the High Court was that the bazars are homesteads under Section 5 and they remain to be in possession of the intermediary subject to the fixation of the reasonable rent under Section 7 of the Act. The High Court has pointed out that "all the bazars' all of them are famous as bazars or markets". In all of them "the whole complex is rows of shops". There may be tenement or two which may have an office but that does not alter the essential character of the complex. 'Buying and selling is the main rather only operation." It is thus obvious that the complexes which the appellants are claiming as homesteads are nothing but bazars". It is not the case or the petitions that buying and selling activity does not take place at the places described as bazar. I have therefore, no hesitation in holding tha....
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....learned counsel for the State and was not disputed across the bar by the counsel for appellants, that the appellants are maintaining the markets at their own expenses; collecting the fee or rent, as the case may be, and they are responsible for maintenance of sanitary conditions therein. In other words, they are regular centers of buying and selling and regular commercial activities are going on and that, therefore, they do constitute bazar as market as understood in English language. It is true that there is a distinction between urban area and rural area. The Act, as pointed out earlier, does not make any distinction between the urban area or the rural area but intends transference of the entire totality of the right, title and interest in the estate held by the intermediary or tenure-holder, be they situate in rural or urban areas or in both and stand vested in the State on publication of the notification under Section 3 or Sections 3A and 3B. It is next contended that the Act did not intend to enrich the coffers of the State by acquiring the urban property but primarily intended to regulate land reform after the State took over the agricultural lands abolishing intermediary rig....
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.... word 'building', the provisions of Section, 4 d and 7 would indicate that legislature intended to mean something more than merely the lend of notified estate as vested in the State. under Section 5 and 7, the building mentioned therein are deemed to be settled by the State with the intermediary and this could only be on the supposition that the buildings vested in the State. The Collector's power under Section 4 [h] was held to be a part of validly enacted law of acquisition of estate and is an integral part of machinery by which the acquisition of an estate takes place. The Act makes no distinction between hats and bazars held by intermediary or tenure holder in rural or urban areas. Bazars may be held by intermediary or tenure holders on land including in Touzi in rural and urban areas. It would, therefore, be clear that bazars held by intermediaries/tenure- holders are markets and the lands over which the buildings or structures-erected or standing - as bazars are part of the bazars. The bazars held by the intermediary/tenure holders in Touzi numbers, though situated in rural or urban areas, stand vasted under Section 4 [a] read with Sections 3 and 7A of the act. Further conten....