TMI Blog1982 (7) TMI 269X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 2, of Birbhum, West Bengal, acquired leasehold interests in some collieries in the district of Dhanbad, including a colliery known as Bhangabandh Colliery, hereinafter referred to as the said colliery, from the Rajas of Jharia. The said colliery was originally leased by the Rajas to Jadavlal Banerjee for a period of 999 years and the latter leased out the coal mining right in the same in favour of one F. W. Heilgers also for 999 years. F. W. Heilgers, in his turn, transferred his interest in the said colliery to Bird and Co. (P.) Ltd. who ran and managed the same as a Sub-lessee at all material times. By diverse devolutions and transfers, details whereof have been given in the writ application, Messrs Dubrajpur Rice Mills (P.) Ltd. and Jadavlal Trust Estate, a religious-cum-charitable Trust, became owners of the leasehold interests in the collieries, which were originally acquired by Jadavlal Banerjee from the Rajas of Jharia, and in turn, Sub-leased by him to different Sub-lessees, except in the said colliery, which through such devolutions and transfers came to be owned by the petitioner No. 1 as lessee. 3. After the Bihar Land Reforms Act, 1950 (hereinafter referred to as the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... he receipt issued by the Circle Officer, who had received the original return along with the claim for compensation way back in 1956, was annexed. The petitioner No. 1 also annexed to its said application a statement of raisings and despatches of coal for the years from 1951 to 1961 in the prescribed form for enabling the Compensation Officer to verify its claim as to its average income from the said mining leasehold interest in terms of the provisions of the Act Other documents to support the petitioner No. 1's claim as a lessee in respect of the said colliery were also filed. 6. The petitioners' further case is that after due enquiry into the claim of the petitioner No. 1 for compensation and after complying with the statutory requirements and procedure, the appropriate authorities made payment of the compensation to the petitioner No. 1, which was received by the petitioner No. 2 on behalf of the former as its duly constituted attorney. The payments were made both in cash and in bonds and particulars of the said payments have been detailed in an annexure to the writ application (Annexure 'G'). In April, 1978, the petitioner No. 1 transferred the bonds which we ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... tioner No. 1, being Compensation Case No. 1 of 1974-75 which had been earlier fully adjudicated upon, whereby the said officer in exercise of powers under Section 151 of the Code of Civil Procedure reviewed the order of compensation earlier passed in favour of the petitioner No. 1 and directed that the amount already paid in the shape of bonds issued in favour of petitioner No. 1 was to be kept suspended pending further investigation. A copy of the said order has also been annexed to the writ application (Annexure 'K'). 10. Challenging the propriety, validity and legality of the institution of the case and the two orders (Annexures 'H' and 'K'), the petitioners moved the writ application praying, inter alia, for a writ of or in the nature of mandamus commanding the respondents and their servants and agents to forbear from proceeding on the footing or from taking any steps in furtherance of the First Information Report and from instituting any prosecution or further proceeding in respect thereof; and for a similar writ commanding the respondents from applying, enforcing or giving effect to the order contained in the letter of the respondent No. 1 (Annexure ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nnection with any of the said Companies or the Trust Estate during the relevant period and further that even those Cora-parties and Trust Estate themselves were not entitled to any portion of the compensation paid to petitioner No. 2 or any compensation in respect of any land or mine which had vested under the provisions of the Bihar Land Reforms Act, 1950. read with Bihar Land Reforms Rules, 1951. (c) But suddenly in 1974 the petitioner No. 2 with the help and assistance of his accomplice Purushortam Das Goswami came up with a forged handwritten receipt claiming the same to be an attested copy of the original receipt granted to him by the Circle Officer . Jharia in the year 1956 in token of receipt of returns for vested mining interests and on this basis the case records in respect of the Central Manbhum Coal Co. Pvt. Ltd. were started on April 15, 1974 by the accused A. K. Banerjee, the then Additional Collector of Dhanbad. The so-called returns filed by the petitioner No. 2 were shown to have been verified by the District Mining Officer Sri Namanath Jha who was also a party to the conspiracy to cheat and defraud the Government of Bihar. (d) The enquiry has disclosed that i ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... on of the Compensation Assessment Rolls, that is, 18 days before the expiry of the statutory period of 90 days. (h) Enquiry has disclosed that the petitioner No. 1 had no legal authority to claim compensation in the manner it did inasmuch as the petitioner No. 2 failed to produce a single instrument through which the mining rights were granted to the Company by the original proprietors. Even during the review undertaken by the Additional Collector Sri A. C. Chakraborty, the petitioner No. 2 failed to turn up and deliberately avoided production of the documents in support of his claim. Sri Chakraborty further found that the petitioner No. 2 was also associated with the theft of documents from the compensation records of the then Jharia Raj and had in this manner manipulated the payments in his favour. (i) Enquiries have also disclosed that in Dhanbad Compensation Case No. 1/71-72. which was started to consider the claim of compensation payable to Jadavlal Trust Estate on a petition dated 23-6-71 filed by petitioner No. 2. who this time presented himself as the sole trustee and claimed compensation for the mining interests vested in the State, compensation amounting to ₹ ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... id not disclose any offence. We are not at all impressed by the above contentions of Dr. Pal. 15. Dr. Pal's entire endeavour has been to show that the claim of the petitioner No. 1 for compensation in respect of the said colliery and that of the petitioner No. 2 to receive the same on behalf of the petitioner No. 1 was legal and valid but no case has been made out in the writ application to even counter the allegations made in the F. I. R. that the claim for compensation of Dubrajpur Rice Mills (P.) Ltd. and that of Jadavlal Trust Estate were fictitious and the petitioner No. 2 obtained compensation money in respect of the above Company and Trust on the basis of forged and fictitious documents and pursuant to a conspiracy with the government officials. As stated earlier according to the First Information Report the Government of Bihar has been defrauded of a huge sum in respect of those claims, besides that of the petitioner No. 1. Even if Dr. Pal's argument is accepted the only conclusion that can be drawn therefrom is that the First Information Report does not disclose any offence so far as it relates to the role of the petitioner No. 2 in receiving compensation as a D ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... r other persons at whose instance the First Information Report was lodged. As no other point has been raised in support of the appeal preferred by the petitioners the same is liable to be dismissed. In view of our above findings on the merits of the appeal we refrain from deciding the question of its maintainability which was raised by the respondents. 17. Coming now to the appeal preferred by the State of Bihar and others, we find that the principal ground which weighed with the learned trial Judge for setting aside the decision of the Additional Collector, Dhan-bad contained in his communications dated August 13/21, 1978 (Annexure 'H') and dated July 17, 1979 (Annexure 'K') was that the Additional Collector, Dhanbad sought to take away the rights which accrued in favour of the petitioners without giving them an opportunity of being heard. Mr. Prosad appearing on behalf of the appellants contended that no such order as communicated by Annexure 'H' appeared in the record of the Compensation Case No. 1 or 3 of 1974-75 and in this connection he referred to the statements made in paragraph 36 of the affidavit-in-opposition, which was filed by the respondent ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... se to Section 151 of the Code of Civil Procedure by the Additional Collector to set aside the earlier orders and to cancel and/or suspend the bonds was not legally permissible as the authority under the Act had no powers under Section 151 of the Code of Civil Procedure. Dr. Pal lastly contended that the Additional Collector even had no inherent powers to cancel or suspend the bonds. 19. To appreciate their respective contentions it will be necessary at this stage to refer to the impugned communications :-- ANNEXURE 'H' No. 112/C Registered. From : Shri A. C. Chakraborty, Additional Collector, Dhanbad. To : Shri K. N. Banerjee, 7, Queen's Park, Calcutta. Dated, Dhanbad, the 21-8-1978. p Sub: Payment of compensation Bond to M/s. Central Manbhum Coal Co. (p.) Ltd. and M/s. Dubrajpur Rice Mills P. Ltd. in compensation case Nos. 1 and 3 of 1974-75. Sir, Under instructions, the bonds issued to you in payment of final compensation in the above cases are hereby cancelled and you are requested to kindly deposit the bonds bearing serial Nos. P. T. O. 614226 to P. T. O. 615794 and P. T. O. 615795 to 6156320 immediately in this office and late ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... eas suspicion has also arisen as to the quantum of royalty @ 1.25 P.M. Ton fixed in the case appears to be unusually high and whereas this might have resulted in excess payment of compensation money than it would have been actually and legitimately payable to the compensation holder and whereas circumstances under which such excess payment might have been made require thorough investigation, I, Shri A. C. Chakravorty, Additional Collector, Dhanbad, and the successor in office of late R. S. P. Sinha, the Compensation Officer, in the cases (Comp. Cases Nos. 1 of 1974-75 and 3 of 74-75) do hereby in exercise of powers vested in me under Section 151 of the Code of Civil Procedure read with relevant orders, order that payment in the bonds Nos. detailed in the margin in the above cases should remain suspended till further orders. Given under my hand and the seal this day the 17th July, 1979. Sd/- A. C. Chakravarty, Additional Collector and Compensation Officer. Bonds Nos. PTO 614826 to 615794. Total 969 bonds. 20. As regards the first contention of Mr. Prosad, we are unable to accept the same having regard to the fact that the originals of the above two docume ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the petitioners of their legal rights. As Annexure 'H' is liable to be set aside on these two grounds, we need not detail other grounds on which also the issuance of the same cannot be legally justified. The above finding of ours will not however entitle the petitioners to any relief as the order of cancellation (Annexure 'H') stands superseded consequent upon the passing of the subsequent order of suspension communicated through Annexure 'K' and/or Annexure '3'. 22. It has next to be ascertained whether the order of suspension of the bonds pending investigation is valid or not. At the threshold we may point out that the exercise of powers under Section 151 of the Code of Civil Procedure, which recognises the inherent powers of a Civil Court, by the Additional Collector cannot be legally supported. The Act or the rules do not contain any provision treating the authority thereunder as a Civil Court for all intents and purposes entitling the authorities to invoke Section 151 of the Code of Civil Procedure and the only powers of a Civil Court that have been given to the authorities under Section 38 of the Act are in respect of summoning and enforcing ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the powers of the Civil Court on such a tribunal either expressly or by implication. In that case the authorities under the West Bengal Estates Acquisition Act, 1954 issued a notice upon the appellants under Section 57 of the said Act to file relevant records in connection with the settlement earlier recorded as in the opinion of the authority concerned the settlement was invalid. In the notice it was specifically stated that the case was under Section 151 of the Code of Civil Procedure. The validity of the notice was challenged on the grounds, inter alia, that the concerned authority was not a Civil Court and the provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure including Section 151 could not be applied for correction of a finally published record of rights, and that the proceedings for correction of record of rights could not be initiated under Section 151 of the Code of Civil Procedure as there were specific provisions in the West Bengal Estates Acquisition Act for such corrections, and that there was a right of appeal. This Court upheld the above contentions of the appellant and quashed the proceeding initiated under Section 151 of the Code of Civil Procedure. An appeal was preferred ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ficers. The persons against whom the order was made filed an application under Order 9, Rule 13 of the Code. Chatterjee, J. held that Order 9, Rule 13 of the Code is not attracted, but the controller has the inherent power to do justice or, in other words, to enquire into if he has made an order on the basis of some mistake committed by his officers and to remedy the same. Chatterjee, J. has not specifically said that the Thika Controller has the inherent powers of a Civil Court under Section 151 of the Code of Civil Procedure. What he has said is that the Thika Controller as a tribunal has the inherent power to correct its own mistakes. But no tribunal can be said to have jurisdiction to make an order of injunction because it has the inherent power to correct its own mistakes. When a tribunal corrects its own mistakes, it acts within its jurisdiction. But no new jurisdiction can be created for a tribunal on the basis of its inherent power to correct its own mistakes. Here in this case to hold that the Revenue Officer has the jurisdiction to issue an injunction will mean that the Revenue Officer will acquire a new jurisdiction not otherwise conferred on him tinder the statute which ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e. This Court however upheld the order of rectification on the around that the Settlement Officer had the inherent power to set the record right and observed that it was also incumbent upon the authority to take the necessary action as soon as it has been appraised of what was a grave fraud. It may be mentioned in this connection that the Revenue Officers, entrusted with the duty of preparation of record of rights and under the Bengal Tenancy Act, were not clothed with the inherent powers of the Civil Court. 28. The above decision was cited on behalf of the State of West Bengal in the case of Indira Debi v. State MANU/WB/0115/1967 : AIR1967Cal469 (supra), in support of their contention that the authority under the West Bengal Estates Acquisition Act, 1954 was a Civil Court and had the inherent power to correct a mistake in the record induced by forgery. In negativing the above contention this Court observed as follows (at pp. 473-74):-- In our opinion, this contention of Mr. Chakravarty is not well conceived. In Baul Chand Sen's case (1914) 19 Cal LJ 251 : (AIR 1914 Cal 170) (supra) the rectification was sought to be made under Section 108-A of the Bengal Tenancy Act wh ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... asioned or induced by fraud, as otherwise it would not be possible for the Tribunal to decide correctly and effectively the causes before it. 30. It is not in dispute that hi the instant case the notice, Annexure 'K', was issued by the authorities concerned after the First Information Report was lodged wherein serious allegations of fraud and cheating committed by Government officials resulting in payment of compensation to petitioner No. 2 have been made. Since it is in that context that the authorities concerned decided to suspend the bonds pending further investigation in the matter, it cannot be said that the decision of the Additional Collector, Dhanbad to re-open the proceedings of the case is illegal and without jurisdiction. 31. It was lastly contended on behalf of the petitioners that in re-opening the proceeding the Additional Collector, Dhanbad violated the principles of natural justice as the petitioners were not given any opportunity of being heard before such re-opening. We do not think that the stage of giving notice to the petitioners has arisen as by the impugned order Annexure 'K' the encashment of bonds have only been suspended and it has be ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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