9911796707
TMI Blog1975 (9) TMI 188X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... . Naturally the State enacted the Act whereby ceiling on land-ownership was set; surplus lands were taken over for settling ejected tenants and others and peasant proprietorship created. The scheme of the Act with which we are concerned is fairly simple and somewhat scientific, although its language, what with frequent amendments dovetailed from time to time, has made for ambiguity, obscurity, marginal inconsistency and a rich crop of litigation. Indeed, the conflict of opinion at the High Court level and the bone of contention before us arise from this drafting deficiency. Legal Preface: A thumb-nail sketch of the Act is a prefatory necessity. the defines 'small land-owner' [S. 2(2)] having in mind the optimum ownership in the given conditions. 'Permissible area' [s. 2(3)] is a cognate concept limiting the maximum permissible extent a person may hold, and so long as he does not have any excess, he is a small landholder. He can evict the tenants from his holding and be in actual enjoyment as provided by the Act. If, however, he has lands beyond the permissible area, he becomes a large land-owner and has to cough up the excess. However, he is given the option to ch ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... whereby he sought to stow away some of his lands, shed some of his excess lands and look slim on as a small holder before the law Language permiting, the Court as interpretor, must fulfil, not frustrate the legislative mission. Factual Silhouette At this stage it is appropriate to set out the facts in the two appeals which are not in dispute and speak for themselves. C.A. 123 of 1969: One Sampuran Singh who owned 450 bighas and 9 biswas of land, acting with foresight, gifted half of it to his mother in 1951, perhaps with a premonition of coming restrictions by way of ceiling on owner ship. We need not speculate on that point in the light of subsequent happenings. The Act came into force on April 15, 1953 but even before that date the. Owner (who was the petitioner before the High Court under Art. 226 and respondent before us) executed a mortgage with possession over 12 bighas and 5 biswas. There was also some waste land included in his total holding which fell outside the scope of the Act. So much so, on the date when the Act came into force, he was the owner of about 178 bighas which, admittedly, fell safely short of the permissible area of 30 standard acres [vide s. 2(3)]. Ha ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... fe to the law, teeth to its provisions and fulfilment to its soul. C.A. 2023 of 1972: The facts in this appeal are different but the point of law involved is identical. In both the cases the State of Haryana has come up to this Court in appeal, the former by certificate under Art. 133(1)(c) and the latter by special leave granted by this Court. Anyway, in C.A. 2023 of 1972, respondent no. 1 owned 86 odd ordinary acres of land on April 15, 1953 when the Act came into force. After the commencement of the Act he inherited nearly 30 ordinary acres and thus he held well above the permissible area and ceased to be a small land owner. Around the year 1957 he transferred 167 bighas of land to respondents nos. 3 to 6 pursuant to a Civil Court decree passed in 1957 in favour of his sons and wife. We may mention here, parenthetically but pathetically, that the weapons in the armoury of large land owners to defeat the land reform law included securing simulactral decrees from civil courts against themselves in favour of their close relations, thus using the judicial process to have. their excess lands secreted in the names of their dear and near. This invited legislative attention and an ame ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s. To convert these political slogans and into legal realities, to combat the evil of mass evictions, to create peasant proprietorships and to ensure even distribution of land ownerships a statutory scheme was fashioned the cornerstone of which was the building up of a reservoir of land carved out of the large landholdings and made available for utilisation by the State for re-settling ejected tenants." (p. 998) Unfortunately, judicial decisions construing the language of the law have resulted in stultifying the objectives of the enactment leading to further amendments. We are concerned in the present case with ss. 10A and 19B which, in their final form, appeared by an amendment of 1962 (Act XIV of 1962), but retrospective effect was given with effect from the commencement of the Act, viz., April 1953. In this context it is convenient to excerpt the observations of this Court in Amar Singh (supra) at p. 999: "The objects and reasons of Punjab Act 14 of 1962, which brought in certain significant restrictions on alienations and acquisitions of large land-holders starts off in the statement of objects thus: "Some of the recent judicial pronouncements have the effe ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... s. 10-A, if after the commencement of this Act, any person, whether as land-owner or tenant, acquires any inheritance or by bequest or gift from :. person to whom he is an heir any land, or in after the commencement of this Act and before the 30th of July, 1958, any person acquires by transfer, exchange, lease, agreement or settlement any land, or if, after such commencement, any person acquires in any other manner any land and which with or without the lands already owned or held by him exceeds in the aggregate the permissible area, then he shall within the period prescribed, furnish to the Collector, a return in the prescribed form and manner giving the particulars of all lands and selecting the land not exceeding in the aggregate the permissible area which he desires to retain, and if the land of such person is situated in more than one patwar circle, he shall also furnish a declaration required by section 5-A. (2) If he fails to furnish the return and select his land within the prescribed period, then the Collector many in respect of him obtain the information required to be shown in the return through such agency as he may deem fit and select the laud for him in the manner p ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ion by the State. Section 10-(a) is wide in its terms and encompasses all surplus area, howsoever obtained. Even s. 10A(b) strikes not discordant note. All that it says and means is that lands acquired by an heir by inheritance are saved in so far as dispositions of such lands are concerned. The drafting of the saving clause is cumbersome but the sense is and, having regard to the conspectus, can only be that although in the hands of the propositus, it is surplus land, if among the heirs it is not, then their transfers will not be affected by the interdict of s. 10- A(a) the sins of the father shall not set the teeth of the children on edge. If the heirs are otherwise small holders, the fact that their father was a large owner will not deprive the former of their heritage, if it is less than the permissible area. We see no conflict between s. 10-A and 19B. Assuming some inconsistency, primacy goes to s. 19Bwhich effectuates the primary object. It is settled law that Courts should favour an interpretation that promotes the general purpose of an Act rather than one that does not. Counsel for the respondents adopted the arguments which found favour with the High Court and pressed two ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
|
