TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2015 (11) TMI 1610
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.... surplus area be made by the Collector. On 22.7.1976, the Collector, Una District passed an order holding that the land owned by wife of late Dev Raj namely, Smt. Kala Devi, and Yash Pal, Dharam Pal, Ram Pal sons of Dev Raj be excluded from the holding of landowner Dev Raj and all the members of the family holding land continue to enjoy rights therein to the extent of the determined permissible area. Thereafter, while deciding reference in revision, the Financial Commissioner, Himachal Pradesh remanded the case to the Collector for decision afresh in accordance with law after affording due opportunity to the respondents. After remand, the Collector Land Ceiling, Una passed order holding that Dev Raj and that of his family with Ram Paul being adult son on the appointed day i.e.24.1.1971, the landowner is entitled for two units of land as permissible area. 3. In appeal against the aforesaid order, the Divisional Commissioner, Kangra Division, on 30.3.1986, held that the provisions of Section 4(6) are very explicit under which the total land held by the family members has to be considered. In revision, the Financial Commissioner (Appeals) upheld the order of the Divisional Commission....
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....petitioners No.2 to 5 have acquired any land through petitioner No.1 before the appointed date 24.1.1971. The simple case of the respondents is that since petitioners No.2 to 5 are family members of petitioner No.1, therefore, their individual holding is to be counted for determination of permissible area of all family members as a unit and, therefore, all of them collectively are entitled to only two units. This argument of the respondents has no force; firstly, petitioner No.2 is the wife and petitioners No.2 to 5 are adult sons of petitioner No.1. Family has been defined as husband, wife and their minor children or anyone or more of them. The petitioner No.2 being the wife of petitioner No.1 is entitled to be treated as an individual person for the purposes of determining the permissible area available to her as held in Raj Kumar Rajinder Singh's case (supra). The petitioners nos.3 to 5 are not family members of petitioner no.1 as per definition of family and otherwise also their individual land holding cannot be counted under sub-section (6) of Section 4 for determination of permissible area along with petitioner no.1. Even if petitioners nos.3 to 5 on the appointed date were m....
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....ench of the Himachal Pradesh High Court in Raj Kumar Rajinder's case (AIR 1976 HP 82(FB). Learned counsel submitted that the Full Bench considered the provisions of the Act and held that additional area is added on the fiction that so much more land out of the land holding is required as a provision in the hands of the land holder in respect of an adult son. 10. Mr. Sachthey, then submitted that in any event it is a settled proposition of law that where a decision is allowed to stand or followed for a considerable length of time then the Court is reluctant to interfere on the principle of stare decisis. In this connection, learned counsel relied upon the decisions of this Court in the case of Gajnan and Others vs. Seth Brindaban; (1970) 2 SCC 360 and Raj Narain Pandey and Others vs. Sant Prasad Tewari and Others; (1973) 2 SCC 35. 11. At this stage, we think it proper to go through the relevant provisions of the Act. Section 3 defines the word "family" and "person" as under:- "3(e) "family" means husband, wife and their minor children or any one or more of them; xxxx 3(n) "person" means the landowner, tenant and mortgagee with possession, and includes a company, a family, an....
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....d mentioned in clause (a) of sub-section (1) shall count as one and a half acres of land mentioned in clause (b) of sub-section (1) and seven acres of land mentioned in clause (c) of sub-section (1); (ii) in the areas other than the areas mentioned in sub-section (2) of this section, one acre of land mentioned in clause (a) of sub-section (1) shall count as one and a half acres of land mentioned in clause (b) of sub-section (1), and three acres of land mentioned in clause (c) of sub-section (1): Provided that on the basis of ratio prescribed in clauses (i) and (ii), the permissible area shall be converted into the category of land mentioned in sub-section (2) and in clause (c) of sub-section (1) as the case may be, and the total area so converted shall not exceed 70 acres in case of clause (i) and 30 acres in case of clause (ii). (6) Where a person is a member of the family, the land held by such person together with the land held by all the members of the family shall be taken into account for the purpose of calculating the permissible area." 13. By reading the plain language of Section 4, it provides that the landowner may be a family, capable of holding property, consisti....
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....it individually but subject to the condition that aggregate land of the family and that of the separate units put together shall not exceed twice the area permissible under the said sub-section. 15. Section 6 of the Act reads as under:- "6. Ceiling of land: - Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in any law, custom, usage or agreement, no person shall be entitled to hold whether as a landowner or a tenant or a mortgagee with possession or partly in one capacity and partly in another, the land within the State of Himachal Pradesh exceeding the permissible area on or after the appointed day." 16. Another important provision is Section 17, which deals with the case of future acquisition of land by inheritance or otherwise in excess of permissible area or increase in such area as a result of operation of this Act. Section 17 reads as under:- "Section 17: Future acquisition of land by inheritance or otherwise in excess of permissible area or increase in such area as a result of operation of this Act: (1) Subject to the provisions of section 15, if after the commencement of this Act, any person, whether as landowner or tenant, acquires by inheritance or by bequest or....
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....s. 17, 18 and 19 of the impugned judgment as under:- "17. In Rajkumar Rajinder Singh's case (supra), Full Bench of this Court in Paragraph-8 has held as under:- ".............It is the permissible area in the case of a person or a family. And it is the permissible area in respect of the landholding of such person or family. It is the landholding of such person or family alone which forms the subject-matter of Section 4, and the several sub-sections lay down the principles for the mathematical computation of the permissible area in respect of such land-holding. Section 4 is not concerned with the landholding of any other person or family nor with the transfer of the rights of one landholder in favour of another. 18. In Paragraph 24, the Full Bench has held that no doubt that sub-section (6) of Section 4 contemplates where a person is a member of family, the land held by such family together with the land held by all the members of the family shall be taken into account for the purposes of calculating the permissible area, that question can arise only in relation to a family, the provision is concerned only with the mathematical computation of the permissible area. 19. In par....