TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1974 (1) TMI 113
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....ders which diminish the surplus pool intended for re-settlement by the State of ejected tenants, the agrarian reform measure would be reduced to a paper tiger or socioeconomic eyewash. Certainly, land reforms are so basic to the national reconstruction of the new order envisaged by the Constitution that the issue raised in this case deserves our anxious attention. We have to bear in mind, the activist, though inarticulate, major premise of statutory construction that the rule of law must run close to the rule of life and the court must read into an enactment, language permitting, that meaning which promotes the benignant intent of the legislation in preference to the one which perverts the, scheme of the statute on imputed legislative presumptions and 'assumed social values valid in a prior era. An aware court, informed of this adaptation in the rules of forensic interpretation, hesitates to nullify the plain object of a land reforms law unless compelled by its language, and the crux of this case is just that accent when double possibilities in the chemistry of construction crop up. A breif survey of the relevent facts leading up to the legal controversy seeking resolution i....
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....ey were on the holding on the key date in 1953 and if later they did not keep their possession (abandoned or surrendered) the tenancy terminated and on the facts of this case the lands came into the actual possession of the land holder, Mst. Lachhman, no other legal inference being possible than that the leases were extinguished and the lands reverted to the landlady on general principles of law. In short, we have to proceed on the assumption that one plot, namely, khasra No. 177 had always. been in the self-cultivation of the landlady and that the two tenanted plots, namely, khasras Nos. 265 and 343, came into the khas possession of the landlady subsequent to the crucial date. Apprehending the statutory peril to these lands which were admittedly outside her "reserved areas" Mst. Lachhman went through the exercise of making a gift of the three lands to her daughter Smt. Shanti (vide mutation No. 445 decided on December 24, 1953 and referred to in Annexure B). Subsequently, it is seen that Amar Singh, husband of Shanti and Indraj, brother of Amar Singh purported to apply for purchase of the landholders right in these three plots under s. 18 of the Act making Lachhman and Shanti co-r....
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....ecessary now. A flash back to the genetic evolution of the act and the legislative mutations by amendatory effort to make the law effective, and to unmake judicial decisions which weakened the working of it will help understand the current biochemistry of the Act. Any interpretation unaware of the living aims ideology and legal anatomy of an Act will miss its soul substance--a flaw which we feel, must be avoided particularly in socio-Economic legislation with a dynamic will and mission. Now to the legislation itself. A brief introduction is found in the reference order of the Full Bench (Shamsher Bahadur, J.) in Mam Raj v. State of Punjab : "The Act passed on 15th of April, 1953, was not the first legislation on the subject and the contours of many of the concepts had already taken shape in the two earlier enactments on the subject, namely, the Punjab Tenants (Security of Tenure) Act, 1950 (Act No. 22 of 1950) and Punjab Tenants (Security of Tenure) Amendment Act, 1951 (President's Act 5 of 1951). The Act, which at once consolidated and amended the existing law on the subject, was designed "to provide for the security of land tenure and other incidental matters". As....
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....area were allowed to reserve for themselves the best lands they desired to keep and this parcel or parcels of land was meaning fully designated as "reserved area". Of course, if he failed to intimate his selection within six months from the commencement of the Act to the Patwari concerned, the prescribed authority was empowered to select the parcel or parcels of land which such person was entitled to retain for himself. The legislature found that many land-owners had failed to make the reservation in time and so by the Amending Act 46 of 1957 a further period of six months from the commencement of the later Act was given for selecting the land/lands they meant to keep, and further again gave the prescribed authority power to select the parcel or parcels of land on behalf of the defaulting landholders. The intendment of the statute was that the reserved area war, to be self cultivated and so land-owners were competent to eject tenants from the reserved area, although, generally speaking, evictions had been barred. As a matter of fact, landholders were directed to start self cultivation within six months from the date of reservation or the date on which they got possession by evictio....
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....s : "Some of the recent judicial pronouncements have the effect of defeating the objectives with which the Punjab Security of land Tenures Act, 1953, was enacted and amended from time to time. It was intended that the surplus area of every land-owner recorded as such in the revenue records should be made utilisable for the settlement of ejected tenants." Certain specific decisions and their impact on the legislative operation were mentioned, and then the statement of objects proceeded : "In order to evade the provisions of s. 10-A of the Parent Act interested persons, being relations, have obtained decrees of courts for diminishing the surplus area. Clause (4) of the Bill seeks to provide that such decrees should be ignored in computing the surplus area." We. mention this only to emphasize that the legislature has been anxious to, guard against erosion of the surplus pool by alienatory maneouvres or even decrees and orders obtained through judicial or quasi-judicial processes. The Act defines "permissible area" "in relation to landowner or a tenant as 30 standard acres and where such 30 standard acres on being converted into ordinary acres exceed 60 acres, s....
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....he area reserved under this Act. However, such ejectment shall not be given effect to by way of disposession unless the displaced tenant"is accommodation surplus are a in accordance with the provisions of s. 10-A or......' Of course, if the tenant is a close relation of the landlord within the prescribed category this protection does not enure to him as per the second proviso to s-9-A. It is note worthy that a son-in law is not one such relative. It is obvious that a large number of tenants would be ejected by small landholders and large landholders from their reserved areas under s. 9 of the Act. Naturally, legislative concern for their rehabilitation found expression in s. 10-A(a) which runs thus 10-A(a) The State Government or any officer empowered by it in this behalf, shall be competent to Utilize any surplus area for the resettlement of tenants ejected, or to be ejected, under clause (i) of sub-section (1) of s. 9." The success of the scheme, therefore, depends on the extent of the surplus pool. For one thing, large landholders, when deprived of their excess area, as well as small landholders, in order to be viable, have to secure actual possession of what they are eli....
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....at while this provision was enacted in 1962 and while s. 10-A(b) prohibiting alienations was passed in 1955, both these provisions were given retrospective effect as from the decisive date, namely, April 15, 1953. The deep concern of the legislature is clear from all this. Right from the beginning one of the primary objects of the statute had been to enable tenants to purchase the Landlord's right and become full owners and in this behalf was enacted S. 18 which has figured very much in the controversy in these appeals, It states : "18(1) Notwithstanding anything to the contrary contained in any law, usage or contract, a tenant of a landowner other than a small land-owner (i) who has been in continuous occupation of the land comprised in his tenancy for a minimum period of six years, or (ii)........ (iii)....... shall be entitled to purchase from the landowner the land so held by him but not included in the reserved area of the landowner, in the case of a tenant falling within clause (i) or clause (ii) at any time, and in the case of a tenant falling within clause (iii)within a period of one year from the date of commencement of this Act: ....
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.... by another officer under a different provision of the Act, having regard to comity of courts and jurisdictions. As indicated already, the principal discussion in the judgment under appeal has turned on the claim to primacy of s. 18 as against s. 10-A and so it is as well that we state right now what stand we propose to take in resolving apparent conflicts in the provisions of a socially-oriented, projectimplementing legislation. Every such statute has a soul and an integrated personality-minor deformities may mar this unity, especially when piecemeal amendments and unskilled drafting occur. The basic judicial approach must be to discover this soul of the law and strive to harmonise the many limbs to subserve the pervasive spirit and advance the social project of the enactment. Seeming confrontations between provisions must be resolved into a cooperative coexistence. This interpretative activism persuades us in this case to reconcile what the High Court has conceived to be a conflict between s. 10-A and s. 18. Here, there are 3 khasra nos., two of which (nos. 265 and 343) were outstanding on tenancy with Chandu and Sri Chand at the relevant date, April 15, 1953 (which admittedly....
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....he mere subsequent change of the holder of the tenancy will not make the tenancy premises revert to the surplus area of the landowner. It is, therefore, clear that the land comprised in Khasras Nos. 265 and 343 (subject matter of the tenancy in favour of Amar Singh) could not fall within the definition of surplus area in the hands of the landowner and Section 10-A of the Act could not apply to it." We are afraid there is a fallacy in this reasoning. It is true that a mere change in tenancy by transfer of the lease as such, as distinguished from a landlord inducting a new tenant on land the prior lease over which has been terminated and possession restored to the lanlord, may not perhaps offend s.10-A although situations may arise even in such cases leading to a different conclusion. We need not investigate this possibility further. In the present case, the exclusion of the two khasras from the surplus area depends on their being part of the permissible area of Chandu and Sri Chand. To salvage the lease in his favour, Amar Singh, the new tenant, must prima facie show that this alienation does not violate s.10-A(b) which prohibits all transfers and other dispositions which diminis....
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....it be argued that even if a tenant gives up his interest in the holding the statute will haunt him with rights. 'Permissible area' is not a concept in the abstract but, as s.2(3) mentions, is 'in relation to a landowner or a tenant'. In relation to Chandu and Sri Chand no claim to permissible area or consequential rights has been set up and Amar Singh is not a transferee from them but a de novo tenant. It follows that the two khasras should be computed as part of the surplus area of Mst. Lacchman and s.10-A(b) operates to invalidate the alleged lease to Amar Singh as its clear impact is to diminish the surplus area of the landowner. He had, therefore, no right as a tenant to purchase under s. 18. The more serious question raised turns on the effect of the purchase orders, Annexure A, on s.10-A(c). The High Court reasoned-and this was repeated before us as counsel's argument-that while it is true that for determining the surplus area of a person 'any judgment, decree or order of a court or other authority' obtained after the commencement of the Act and having the effect of diminishing his surplus area 'shall be ignored', this mandate does not appl....
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.... orders under s. 18 from "other authorities" is that "the result would be that the benefit sought to be conferred by s. 18 on the tenants would be completely nullified and obliterated". In this connection he further observed : "In every case, order under section 18 of the Act, would be passed after the Act came into force. If an order under section 18 has to be ignored by the operation of clause (c) of section 10-A, every order under section 18, must be ignored while declaring the permissible area of the Landowner. There is no discretion in the authorities to apply the provisions of clause (c) of s. 10-A or not to apply them. The provision is mandatory, if, therefore, clause (c) of section 10-A could be utilised for abrogating the effect of an order under section 18 of the Act, the whole scheme of the Act of distribution of land to the tenants and for conferring a right on a tenant to purchase the land within the limits of permissible area, would be flouted." Having given serious consideration to the pros and cons we are not satisfied that this argument is valid; on the contrary, if upheld it may stultify s. 10-A and the scheme of the statute altogether. Obviously, if e....
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....served area he can move for purchase. Such a purchase being from the permissible area of the tenant is outside the surplus area of the landlord and does not diminish "the area of such person which could have been declared as his surplus area". Ex hypothesi "surplus area" excludes a tenant's permissible area. Therefore, even if that land falls outside the reserved area of the landowner, if it is within the tenant's permissible area, its purchase by the tenant cannot diminish the landowner's surplus area. (emphasis supplied) Another substantial category, who may buy under s. 18 without reducing the surplus area, is the re-settled tenants. When the State acting under s. 10-A(c) accommodates an ejected tenant the utilization of the surplus land pro tanto is fulfilled. Such a rehabilitated tenant of the landlord, after the six years' term, can qualify to buy under s. 18. Such a purchase only fulfils the second object of the Statute of making the tiller the owner and does not in any way diminish the-surplus area of the landlord. For, with the re-settlement of an ejected tenant that land, for all practical purposes, is no longer available for the only purpose for which the....
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.... been ignored in Annexure 'B'. Here it serves the discussion to remember that the leases in question have been found by the Collector to have been collusively got up to dwindle the surplus area of the landowner. The Collector in Annexure 'B' finds: A " ......and it is crystal clear that Amar Singh and Indraj had not been in continuous cultivating possession of this land for full six years, the other copy of Khasra Girdawari put in this case and which is to be found at page 27 of the file, shows the possession over this land of Indraj and Amar Singh only from the year 1957-58, and so their possession over it for full six years is not complete as yet." He has also stated that he was convinced "that the landowner has conspired with her son-in-law Amar Singh and his brother Indraj to retain this area in contravention of the law." A third pregnant fact is that the proceedings under s. 18 were prima facie collusive, and to burke an enquiry into the eligibility of the alleged tenants to purchase under s. 18 an expedient was resorted to. "Before the proceedings could start" says Annexure 'A', "the parties have come to terms and they have actually put in court a comp....
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....tinuous occupation. Here, on the Collectors finding, Amar Singh and Indraj came by possession ,only in 1957-58 and, as he points out in Annexure 'B', the six year period is not complete at the time of application. The reason why ,even before the proceedings began parties presented a compromise ,and avoided an enquiry is not far to seek. In short, the State could and did make out the incompetence of the respondents to purchase under s. 18 and Annexure 'A', being also stricken by the vice of s. 10-A (b) and (c). Shri Dhingra urged that s.18(1)(iii) did contemplate purchase rights for persons who had no possession when the Act came into force and their purchases must necessarily diminish the surplus area. This seeming attractiveness vanishes when we notice that s.18(1) (ii) ,and (iii) provide for two classes of hard cases where unjust evictions prior to the Act coming into force had deprived them of their rights. For all practical purposes the Act clothes them with such rights as they would have enjoyed had they not suffered unjust evictions. That is why specific provision was made in s. 18 for them. The exception proves the rule. The paramountcy of s. 10-A cannot be s....
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....ding the consent decree refuse to sell the office in execution. It is clear that if the matter had rested in contract only, the Court could not have enforced the sale in a suit brought for that purpose. The mere fact that the contract is embodied in a decree does not alter the incidents of the contract." it may be right to conclude that any authority, like the Collector here, enjoined to apply s. 10-A(b) and (c) may decline to act on a compromise which has ripened into an order if the agreement between the parties disposes of property in violation of a statutory mandate. He can and must lift the veil and look the agreement of the parties in the face. The vice of contravention of s. 10-A(b) is writ large in Annexure 'A.' A few decisions of this Court bearing on the efficiency of consent decrees were cited at the bar and they are exhaustively dealt with in Chari v. Seshadri([1973] 1 S.C.C. 761). The other rulings of this Court-all rendered under the Rent Control Law-are Bahadur Singh v. Muni Subrat [1969] 2 S.C.R. 432. Kaushalya Devi v. K.L. Bansal([1969] 2 S.C.R. 1048), and Ferozi Lal Jain v. Man Mal([1970] 3 S.C.C. 181). The core principle or ratio that is revealed in th....
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....did not vacate the premises within the time mentioned as per the compromise memo. On the other hand, he filed an application under s. 47, C.P.C., pleading that the decree is void as being in contravention of s. 13 of the Delhi statute. The High Court held 'that the decree was a nullity, as the order was passed solely on the basis of the compromise without indicating that any of the statutory grounds mentioned in s. 13 existed. Following the decision in Bahadur singh v. Muni Subrat(supra), this Court upheld the order of the High Court. In Ferozi Lal Jain v. Man Mal(2), the landlord's grounds for eviction were denied by the tenant but they reported compromise with prayer for a decree for eviction. This Court ruled "From the facts mentioned earlier, it is seen that at no stage, the Court was called upon to apply its mind to the question whether the alleged 'subletting is true or not. Order made by it does not show that it was satisfied that the subletting complained of has taken place, nor is there any other material on record to show that it was so satisfied. it is clear from the record that the court had proceeded solely on the basis of the compromise arrived....
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....he bona fides of and eligibility for the purchase. So viewed, the respondents in these appeals cannot on the strength of the purchase orders exclude those lands from the operation of s. 10-A(a) of the Act. The legislature, charged with the constitutional mandate of art. 38 and art. 39 has passed the Act and amended it from time to time in furtherance of the major purpose of distributive justice. The judicial wing of the State, viewing the law in the same wavelength, interprets and applies it. But the Executive instrumentality of the State has an activist role to play if the arm of the law were not to hang limp and social justice is not to be a cynical phrase. Good laws and correct interpretations are not enough. Quick, conscientious and public minded enforcement, of the provisions is the responsibility of Government and its officers. In the present case the Assistant Collector'& order, Annexure 'A', has fortified an attempted fraud on the statute. It was stated at the Bar that a score of years notwithstanding, the processes of fixing reserved areas and surplus areas on the strength of which alone conferment of proprietory right on tenants and re-settlement of ejected te....
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....ses in Amar Singh's case (C.A. 1755 of 1967) and has been dealt with by the High Court. (iv) Whether any land held by tenants on April 15, 1953 within the permissible area of those tenants, can be included in the 'surplus area' of the landowner, if, at the time the surplus area collector takes up the determination of the matter, that land is found to be comprised in the tenancy of persons other than the original tenants." The material facts are these: On April 15, 1953 when the Act came into force, Smt. Lachhman (hereinafter referred to as the 'landowner') owned 101 .6 standard acres, equivalent to 404.10 ordinary acres, of land in the revenue, estates of two villages, namely, Darba Kalan and Nahran Wali. Out of this holding of the landowner, we are concerned only with Field Nos. 177, 265 and 343, situate in the area of Darba Kalan. On the determinative date (April 15, 1953), Field No. 177 measuring 64 bighas and 12 biswas which is the subject matter of C. A. 1756/67, was in the personal cultivation of the landowner, while Field Nos. 265 and 343, measuring 67 bighas and 19 biswas were in the occupation of two tenants, namely, Sri Chand and Nathu. ....
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....inary acres equal to 101 .61 standard acres as the surplus area of Smt. Lachhman and included in that area the land in question (comprised in Field Nos. 265, 343 and 177) of which according to his earlier order Amar Singh and Indraj were deemed to have become owners by purchase under s. 18. He ignored his order, dated September 15, 1961 on the ground that Amar Singh and Indraj has not been in continuous occupation of these fields as tenants for the full terms of six years and that "in fact the landowner has conspired with her son-in-law, Amar Singh, and his brother, Indraj, to retain this area in contravention of the law". It was added that the said order was based on a compromise and was a "collusive one". Amar Singh and Indraj filed two separate writ petitions under Art. 226 of the constitution for the grant of a writ of certiorari for bringing up and quashing the order, dated May 11, 1962, of the Surplus Area Collector and for a writ of Mandamus directing the respondent State not to dispossess them from the fields purchased by them under s. 18. The High Court by its common Judgment, dated October 4, 1966, answered the three questions referred to above. as under "(i) ....
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....d by Act 10 of 1953 with which we are concerned. The preamble says that the Act is a piece of legislation "to provide for the security of land tenure and other incidental matters". The Act classifies landowners into "small landowners" and "other landowners". A "small landowner" as defined in s. 2(2), means a landowner whose entire land does not exceed the "permissible area". Owners other than small landowners fall in the second category. "Landowner" means a person defined as such in the Punjab Land Revenue Act, 1887 (Act XVII of 1887) and also includes an "allottee" and "lessee" as defined in clauses (b) and (c) respectively, of section 2 of the East Punjab Displaced Persons (Land Resettlement) Act, 1949. Under the Explanation added to the clause, a mortgagee, in respect of the land mortgaged with possession is also to be deemed a 'landowner'. "Landowner" is not comprehensively defined in the Land Revenue Act, clause (2) of Sec. 3 of that Act makes it clear that "landowner" does not include a tenant. Thus, it is to be noted that lesses from the landowner (being other than those falling under s. 2(e) of the Land Resettlement Act, 1949) do not come within the definition of "l....
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....orce on December 20, 1957. Section 5-B enacts that "a landowner who has not exercised his right of reservation under this Act, may select his permissible area and intimate the selection to the prescribed authority within the period specified in sec. 5-A and in such form and manner as may be prescribed. The requisite form was prescribed by Punjab Government Notification No. 3223-LR-11-57/1624 published in the Gazette Extraordinary of March 22, 1958, consequently, a landowner could make the selection of his permissible area within six months of date. In Gurbax Singh v. State of Punjab (supra), this Court held that ,selection' in s. 5-B is similar to 'reservation' in s. 5 and that, in terms, s. 5-B gives the landowner another chance to make the reservation if he had not exercised his right of reservation earlier under s.5. It was clarified that "reservation" and "selection" involve the same process and indeed, to some extent, they are convertible, for, one can reserve land by selection and another select land by reservation. Thus if the right of selection is exercised under s. 5-B, by the landowner, his permissible area would become his 'reserved area'; to that ....
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....landowner, (b) the permissible area of a tenant, and (c) the surplus area. The details for the determination of these matters are to be found in 1956 Rules Rule 6 is really material No doubt in the Act, there is no specific provision which says that a decision has to be given by any authority whether a permissible area has or has not been rightly reserved or selected by a landowner or tenant concerned, but when the provisions of the Act with the rules are considered, it becomes plain that while determining the surplus area with a landowner or a tenant the question of his permissible area comes to be determined so that, if there is a question in regard to the validity of reservation or selection of permissible area, it must come for consideration before the Collector when he disposes of the surplus area of a particular landowner or tenant......." (Parenthesis added). Declaration of 'surplus area' does not have the effect of expropriating the landowner of that area. The only effect of such declaration is that the Government gets a right to utilize the surplus are, if necessary, for settlement of ejected tenants. The tenants, thus settled on the surplus land become by....
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....the landowner the land so held by him but not included in the reserved area of the landowner, in the case of a tenant falling within clause(i) or clause (ii) at any time, and in the case of a tenant falling within clause (iii)within a period of one year from the date of the commencement of this Act; Provided.. Provided further.... (2) A tenant desirous of purchasing land under subsection (1) shall make an application in writing to an Assistant Collector of First Grade having jurisdiction over the land concerned , and the Assistant Collector, after giving notice to the landowner and to all other persons interested in the land and after making such inquiry as he thinks fit, shall determine (formerly the word was 'fix,) the average of the prices obtaining for similar land in the locality during 1 0 years immediately preceding the date on which the application is made. 3. xxx xx xx &nb....
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....ition (b) is the most important. By excluding a landowner's reserved permissible area from the operation of s. 18, it confines a tenant's right of purchase to that land which either falls within the 'surplus area' of the landowner, or, was on April 15, 1953 within the 'permissible area' of that tenant. As observed by this Court in Sahib Ram_v. Financial Commissioner Punjab and Ors.( [1970] 3 S. C. R. 796 at p. 805. ) "Under s. 18(1) three categories of tenants have been given a right to purchase from the landowner the land so held by him. They are : (i) a tenant who has been in continuous occupation of the land for a minimum period of six years ; (ii) a tenant restored to his tenancy under the Act and whose period of continuous occupation of the land comprised in his tenancy immediately before ejectment and after restoration amounts to six years or more and (iii) a tenant who was ejected from his tenancy after-August 14, 1947 and before April 15, 1953, and who was in continuous occupation of the land comprised in his tenancy for a period of six years or more immediately before his ejectment." Category (iii) has become extinct and clause (iii) ....
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....ffice it to say here, that in view of the law settled in Sahib Ram's case (supra), Amar Singh and Indraj provided the other conditions were satisfied-would be entitled to purchase the land comprised in their tenancies notwithstanding the fact that the said land was a part of the surplus area of the landowner and these tenancies were created by her after April 15, 1953. It will now be appropriate to examine s. 10-A. It is one of the question. It reads 10--A (a) The State Government or any Officer empowered by it in this behalf, shall be competent to utilise any surplus area or the resettlement of tenants ejected, or to be ejected, under clause (i) of sub-section (1) of section 9. (b) Notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for, the time being in force, and (save in the case of land acquired by the State Government under any law for the time being in force or by any heir by inheritance) no transfer or other disposition of land which is comprised in a surplus area at the commencement of this Act, shall affect the utilization thereof in clause (a). Explanation--Such utilization of any surplus area will-not affect the right of the landowner to receive rent from ....
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....ns, being relatives, have obtained." "in order to evade the provisions of Section 10-A the parent Act". That was why clause (c) was inserted in s. 10-A. I have referred in extenso to the Objects and Reasons which led to these Amendments to show that while the Legislature was anxious to preserve surplus area for settlement of evicted tenants and for that purpose enacted S. 10A, it did not in its wisdom, think it fit, to curtail the ambit of s.18 so as to exclude tenants inducted by the landowner on the surplus area from purchasing their tenancy lands through the mechinery of this section. So far as the right to purchase their tenancies is concerned, tenants inducted by the landowner and' tenants settled by the Government, on the surplus area, remain on an, equal footing. The Amendments did not in relation to the new Section 10-A, relegate s. 18 to a position of "subordinate alliance".. The non-obstante clause of s. 18 has not been touched. Indeed, the amendments of s. 18 inter alia, by providing for easier terms of purchase and reducing the qualifying period from 12 to 6 years, have made the machinery of the section more comprehensive, efficient and attractive for tenants des....
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....rrent revisional jurisdiction. The revisional powers of the Financial Commissioner unders. 84 are in no way less extensive than those of the High Court under 115 of the Code of Civil Procedure. In a sense, his revisional powers are wider. He has power to revise an order against which an. appeal lies (gee Amir Chand v. State of Haryana (1) decided by a Division (1) 1971 P.L.J. 449. Bench of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. No.statutory limitation for making an application for revision has been provided, but as a matter of practice the revision-petitions are ordinarily not entertained after a period of 90 days unless sufficient cause for the delay is shown. The Financial Commissioner can interfere in revision suo moto at any time, if the circumstances of the case so warrant. There is nothing in the Act or the Rules framed thereunder or in tie Tenancy Act saying as to who can file an appeal or revision against the decision or order of the Collector exercising jurisdiction under s. 18. But in view of the long array of judicial decisions including that of the Financial Commissioner, there can be no doubt that the State Government or its Department can, if aggrieved, or prejudiced b....
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....r modified by way of appeal, review or revision or other appropriate proceedings. In a sense, therefore, that decision had become final and conclusive. The stage is now set for examining the contentions canvassed at the bar with regard to the correctness or otherwise of the findings of the High Court. Mr. Mahajan, learned Counsel for the appellant-State contends that the Collector, Surplus Area had rightly ignored the sale orders dated September 15, 1961, of the Collector purportedly passed under s. 18, in favour of Amar Singh and Indraj and that the view taken by the High Court is wrong, because (a) the lease made by the landowner in favour of these Respondents, was itself a "transfer of land" effecting the utilization of surplus area, and as such, was Mt by clause (b) of of s. 10-A, and the orders obtained on the basis of that lease could not stand on a better footing; (b) the expression "transfer" in clause (b) of this section includes. involuntary transfers, also, brought about by operation of law, with only two exceptions which are specifically mentioned in that clause; (c) these orders were consent orders and were not based on any independent finding of the Col....
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.... (2) was also cited. Replying to Mr. Mahajan's contention (c), Counsel submits that this was not a case where the orders of the Collector passed under s. 18 could be said to be a nullity. The Khasra Girdawari before the Collector with the admission of the landowner, superadded, was sufficient material, on the basis of which the Collector making the orders of purchase in favour of the tenants could be satisfied about ,their being in continuous occupation of their tenancy lands for the requisite period. Great emphasis has been placed on the fact that in reply to the writ petition of Amar Singh, the State in their written statement had admitted Amar Singh's averment as to his being a tenant of the land for the requisite period. Even the Surplus Area Authority, it is pointed out, conceded in his impugned order that according to the copy of the Khasra Girdawari on the file, Amar Singh and Indraj were in occupation of the land as tenants since 1957-58, though such occupation was held to be of less than six years. In these circumstances proceeds the argument, the order dated September 15,1961, passed by the Collector under s. 18, on the basis of compromise, could not be treated....
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.... adversely affects the utilization or extent of surplus area. An order is null and void if the quasi-.judicial tribunal passing it lacks inherent jurisdiction over the parties and the subject matter. Such was not the case here. The Assistant Collector who made the orders dated September 15, 1961, was duly invested with the quasijudicial jurisdiction tinder s. 18(2). All the jurisdictional facts for making the orders under that section existed. There is no dispute that Smt. Lachhman was not a "small landowner". It is common ground that Field Nos.263, 343 and 177 did not fall within her reserved area. It was not controverted that in May 1961, when the purchase applications were made, Field Nos. 263 and 343 were comprised in the tenancy-of Amar Singh and Field No. 177 in that of Indraj. According to the observation of the Surplus Area Collector, the copy of the Khasra Girdawri on the file showed that their possession as tenants was from 1957-58 i.e. for about 4 1/2 years only, preceding the applications and thus according to him they had failed to show their continuous possession for the requisite period of six years. It is important to note further that Amar Singh in para 2 of his....
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....ited the same in the Government Treasury on September 29, 1961. And, it was on the making of such deposits that the respondents were deemed to be the owners of those fields. The mere fact that the Assistant Collector did not record a finding in so many words that he was satisfied from such and such material in regard to the existence of the basic conditions necessary for making the order under s. 18, did not render his order a nullity when such material was otherwise evident on the record. In the view I take I am fortified by the decision of this Court in K. K. Chari v. R.N. Seshadri ([1973] 1 S.C.C. 761). That was a case of a compromise order of eviction passed by the Rent Control Court under s. 10 of the Madras Building (Lease and Rent Control) Act, 1960. But by analogy, the ratio of that decision is an apposite guide for the present case. There the landlord brought an action under said Rent Act, for eviction of his tenant, Seshadri from a house on the ground that he required it for his bona fide use and occupation. The tenant at first controverted the landord's claim but subsequently, both the parties filed a compromise in terms of which the court passed a decree of....
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....ey Varkey (A.I.R. 1964 S.C. 907(910)=[1964]1, SCR 495. ) as under "It is well settled that a court having jurisdiction over the subject matter of the suit and over the parties thereto, though bound to decide right may decide wrong and that even though it decided wrong it would not be doing something which it had no jurisdiction to do. It had the jurisdiction over the subject matter of the suit and over the party and, therefore, merely because it made an error in deciding a vital issue in the suit, it cannot be said that it has acted beyond its jurisdiction. As has often been said courts have jurisdiction to decide right or to decide wrong and even though they decide wrong the decrees rendered by them cannot be treated as nullifies........ It merely makes an error or law (which) can be corrected only (on appeal) in the manner laid down in the Civil Procedure Code." The above principle are applicable with greater force to the present case. The Prescribed Authority, surplus Area, and the Collector competent to make an order under s. 18 are both Assistant Collectors of the 1st Grade, that is coordinate authorities exercising separate and distinct jurisdictions. One cannot sit in app....
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....o an attack against its validity on any ground including that of collusion, before the co-ordinate authorities under the Act dealing with the question of determination of surplus area. If I may say so with respect this proposition laid down by the Full Bench is unexceptionable. The above being the law on the point, it is clear that the orders dated September 15, 1961 not having been impeached by way of appeal, review or revision as provided by the statute or in other proceedings Authority Surplus Area was bound to accept them as valid. He could not go behind them or himself sit in appeal over them. It was all the more disconcerting in this case because the Collector who passed the orders under s.18 and the Collector who ignored those orders as Prescribe Authority, Surplus Area happened to be the same Officer. This takes me to the next question viz, if the orders dated September 15, 1961 were not a nullity could they be ignored under s. 10 A on the around that they amounted to "transfer" or orders of "other authority" affecting the utilisation or causing the diminution of surplus area? Before embarking upon a consideration of this question, it is necessary to remember two f....
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...., ejusdem generis with the specific words "judgment, decree or order of a court", which immediately precede them. Thus construed, these general words "or other authority" will not take in an authority exercising jurisdiction under s. 18(2) of the Act. Nor can the words "transfer or other disposition of land' in clause (b) of s. 10-A, be construed to include a transfer which results by the process of s. 18. The meaning of these words must be restricted to volitional dispositions of land made by the landowner, and cannot be extended to cover involuntary transfers brought about by operation of law or circumstance beyond the control of the landowner. The two type of involuntary transfers, namely, acquisition of land by Government under legal compulsion or by an heir by inheritance which were inserted by the Amending Act 4 of 1959 in the saving clause of this provision and were later given a retrospective effect from April 15, 1953, are only clarificatory or illustrative of the original intent of the Legislature. These two instances are not exhaustive of the involuntary transfers which are outside the sweep of clause (b). This interpretation of "transfer" has been consistently....
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....chman which has been found surplus is about 80 standard acres. The land comprised in these two fields is thus only oneeighth of her surplus area. At no stage before the High Court was it contended that Sri Chand and Nathu held or owned in the state any other land apart from the said fields. In this Court, also, either in the grounds of appeal or otherwise, no such allegation or contention has been made. The "permissiable area" which can be held or retained by a tenant under the Act is 30 standard acres. That is to say, the permissible limit of the area which could be held in common by Sri Chand and Nathu, was 60 standard acres. Since it has been no-body's case that Sri Chand and Nathu held any other area, and the land comprised in these two fields being 10.5 standard acres, was far less than their permissible limit, the High Court presumed-and I think, not wrongly that Field Nos. 265 and 343 were held by the tenants Sri Chand and Nathu within their permissible area. It is well settled that surplus area has to be determined with reference to the situation as it obtained on April 15, 1953 when the Act came into force. This proposition is clear from s.19-F, also, which says ....