9911796707
TMI Blog1998 (2) TMI 598X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Land Tribunal on 27.4.1987 registering occupancy rights in favour of the first appellant i.e. B.Rudraiah in respect of 3 acres 34 juntas and 1 acre 24 juntas in Survey No. 55 and 62 respectively of Saneguruvanahalli village, Bangalore North Taluk. Aggrieved by the orders of the High Court dated 18.7.1989, these two appeals are filed by Rudraiah, the aggrieved party. His son B. Veeranna has joined as the second appellant. The main ground on which the High Court has allowed the revisions of respondents 3 and 5 and dismissed the Form 7 applications of the 1st appellant b. Rudraiah is that the said application for grant of occupancy right was filed on 7.3.1984 beyond the period prescribed by Section 48-A of the Karnataka Land Reforms act, 1961 (hereinafter called the Land Reforms Act, 1961). The said provision in Section 48-A was introduced by Karnataka Act 1 of 1979 (with effect from 1.3.1974) fixing time limit for filing applications under Section 45 for registration as "occupants" before the Tribunal. These words introduced by the amending Act 1 of 1979 fixing time limit read as follows: "before the expert of a period of six months from the date of the commencement ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ven before 1961, he was the cultivating tenant of the land in question and continued to be in possession. Prior to his death in 1971, Narasimha Moorthi, one of the sons of Narasiah (Sr) applied before the Asstt. Commissioner under section 5 of the KVO Act, 1961 for re-grant of the entire lands exclusively in his favour. This was contested by his brother S.K. Lakshmi Narasappa (3rd respondent) and narasiah (Jr.). It appears that the Asstt. Commissioner by orders dated 22.6.1970 decided the lands should be re-granted in favour of all three brothers, i.e. sons of the last holders and he did not accept the report of the Tahsildar that regrant should be in favour of Narasimha Moorthi (husband of Kittamma) alone for the entire land. narasimha Moorthi filed an appeal MA No.21 of 1971 before the District Judge and as he died, his wife Kittamma came on record as appellant. The matter was remanded on 20.2.1973 and after remand, an order was passed on 19.4.82 by the Tahsildar again against Kittamma. During the pendently of the appeal, Narasiah Jr, died in 1975 and Prahlada Rao, his son came on record in his place. Against the fresh order dated 19.4.1982, Kittamma filed appeal MA 20 of 1982 qu ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... when under Section 4(3) of that Act the emoluments of the village office stood automatically resumed, the lands stood vested in the Government under Section 4 of that Act and therefore became 'government lands'. Consequently, under Section 107 of the Land Reforms Act, 1961 these lands were not covered by the said Land Reforms Act. if they were not so covered, then the time limit in Section 48-A of that Act, relating to filing of applications by tenants for occupancy did not also apply. Contention is that the said provisions under Section 45 and Section 48-A operated - by virtue of Section 126 of the Land Reforms Act, 1961 - only from the dates on which the question of re - grant to favour of the erstwhile village officers was finally decided. Hence it is argued that the provision relating to the period of limitation mentioned in Section 48-A of the Land Reforms Act, 1961 namely 6 months from the commencement of Section 1 of Karnataka Land Reforms Amendment Act. 1978 (Act1/1979) - did not come into operation till 22.1.1985 when Kittamma's CRP 300 of 1985 was dismissed or when appellants CRP 653 of 1985 was dismissed on 20.7.1989. yet another contention is that amendment to section 1 ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 1970 to re - grant under section 5 of the Village Offices Abolition Act of 1961 in favour of respondent 3 and 5 as also respondent 4 or again after remand, the Tahsildar passed fresh orders on 19.4.1982, the intention of the government to re - grant became clear. Even assuming that the lands became 'government lands' after the village officers were abolished, the provisions of Section 126 of the Land reforms Act, 1961 came into operation, at any rate from 19.4.1982 when the second order of re - grant was passed after remand. It is argued that there was therefore no justification on the part of the 1st appellant to file the application under section 45 (read with section 48-A) on 7.3.1984, was filed only on 7.3.1984 and was hopelessly time barred by 5 years. Alternatively, viewed from 19.4.1982, it was barred by 2 years. On these contentions, the following points arise consideration : (1) Are the provisions of Sections 45, 48-A of the Land Reforms Act. 1961 dealing with the period of limitation for filing application for grant of occupancy right (namely 6 months from date of Commencement of Section 1 of Ac t 1/1979 i.e. 30.6.1979) clear and unambiguous and not capable of extension ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... registered as occupants of land on certain conditions, (1) Subject to the provision of the succeeding sections of this Chapter, every person who was a permanent tenant, protected tenant or other tenant or where a tenant has lawfully sublet, such subtenant shall with effect on and from the date of vesting be entitled to be registered as an occupant in respect of the lands of which he was a permanent tenant, protected tenant or other tenant or sub-tenant before the date of vesting and which he has been cultivating personally. 48-A. Enquiry by the Tribunal, etc.- (1) Every person entitled to be registered as an occupant under section 45 may made an application to the Tribunal in this behalf. Every such application shall, save as provided in this Act, be made before the expiry of a period of six months from the date of the commencement of section 1 of the Karnataka Land Reforms (Amendment) Act. 1978". In order to understood the intention of the legislature in bringing forward the above Amendment, we shall refer to section 48-A as it stood before the Karnataka Land Reforms (Amendment) Act, 1978 (Act 1/1979). We shall show that earlier it is fact contained a specific provision fo ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... terpretation which would avoid it". Sham Rai Vs. Dt. Magistrate (AIR 1952 SC 624 AT 327). In our view Section 48-A, as amended, has fixed a specific date for the making of an application by a simple rule of arithmetic, and there is therefore no scope for implying any 'ambiguity' at all. Further "the fixation of periods of limitation must always be to some extent arbitrary and may frequently result in hardship. But in construing such provisions, equitable considerations are out of place, and the strict grammatical meaning of the words is the only safe guide". (Sir Dinshaw Mulla in Nagendranath Dev vs. Suresh Chandra Dev [ILR 60 Cal 1 (PC)]. For the aforesaid reasons, we hold that the application filed by the 1st appellant under Section 45 on 7.3.1984, long after 30.6.1979 is barred by section 48A of Land Reforms Act, 1961 and the High Court was right in dismissing the said application while exercising revisional powers. Point 1 is said against the appellants. Point 2: We shall now deal with the alternative contention advanced for the appellant and on behalf of Kittamma (4th respondent) that until proceedings under the Village offices (Abolition) Act, 1961 as to re ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... lands under the Village Offices Abolition Act, 1961 was finally decided that the lands ceased to be 'government lands' and it became possible to know who the landlord was, that Form 7 application could be filed. It is true that under Section 4(1) of the Village Offices Abolition Act, 1961 it is stated that "all village offices shall be and are hereby abolished" and Section 4(3) says that land attached to the office "be and is hereby resumed". It is true that Section 5 provides for re-grant if land so resumed to the holder of the village office. Here what is important to notice is the language employed in subclause (3) of Section 4 which deals with resumption as compared to the language employed later in section 5(3) of the same Act. It reads:- "Section 4(3): Subject to the provisions of Section 5. Section 6 and Section 7. all land granted or continued in respect of or annexed to a village office by the State shall be an is hereby resumed and..." In other words, the resumption is not absolute but subject to the provision relating to re-grant to erstwhile office holders as in Section 5 and other types of re-grant in Section 6 and 7. Section 5(1) de ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... n 107: Act not to apply to certain lands: Subject to the provision of Section 110, nothing in this act, except Section 8, shall apply to lands- (i) belonging to Government (ii) ....................... (iii) belonging to or held on lease by or from a local authority.... (iv) given as gallantry award... (vii) used for cultivation by the Coffee Board... (viii) held by any Corporation contract by the State Government or the Central Government or both... Section 107 says that the Land Reforms Act does not apply to 'government lands'. This is however subject to the provision of section 110. Under section 110, Government may 'by notification' direct that any land covered by sections 107 and 108 shall not be exempt from such of the provisions of this Act from which they have been exempted under the said section. Reading the section, it appears that there are good reasons of policy as to why, under section 107 of the Karnataka Land Reforms Act, 1961, government land is exempt. Firstly the section takes notice of the fact that when ceiling on land held by various bodies is to be imposed, such a ceiling cannot be imposed on land held by Government or certain other enumera ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... earned counsel for the appellant relied upon the decision of a learned Single Judge of the Karnataka High Court in Eswarappa vs. State of Karnataka (1979 (2) Karn.L.J.182) as an authority to say that the appellant could file an application under Section 45 of the Land Reforms Act, 1961 only after the determination of rights of the erstwhile village office holders' of re-grant were finally decided under the latter Act. We do not think that the aforesaid decision helps the appellants. What is important to notice is that in that case the application under Section 45 in Form 7 was filed in time. This is clear from the case Nos. of the cases filed in the Tribunal as given in the Judgment. They appear to be of 1974 (before 1978 Amendment) and were disposed of by the Land Tribunal of 27.12.1976, long before the 1978 amendment gave further time upto 30.6.79. In fact, no question of limitation of an application filed under Section 45 after 30.6.79 arose in that case nor was decided. The applications of the tenants were contested by the opposite party stating that the lands in question were Patel Umbli lands, and that the lands were not yet re-granted to the opposite parties under the Villa ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e relating to the Amendment of Act 1/79 came up for consideration, in the above case. In fact, when Tribunal in that case passed orders on 27.12.76 the provision for condonation of delay in section 49A was very much in existence. That power was taken away only under Act 1/79. Hence the above judgment is clearly not relevant. We shall then refer to Section 126 of the Land Reforms Abolition Act, 1961 upon which both sides relied. It deals with "Application of Act to Inams". It starts with the words. "For the removal of doubts" and states that is "hereby" declared that the provisions of the Act, in so far as they confer any rights and impose any obligation on tenants and landlords, shall be applicable to tenants holding lands in inams and other aliened village or lands including tenants referred to in Section 8 of the Village Offices Abolition Act, 1961, but subject to the provision the said Act and to landlords and inamdars holding in such villages or lands. The underlined words were introduced by Act 1 of 1979 w.e.f. 1.1.1979. It is the contention of the 1st appellant that it was only w.e.f. 1.1.1979 that the Act gave certain rights to tenants of land ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
|
