TMI Blog1983 (5) TMI 266X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nant of the land on the tillers' day became the deemed purchaser thereof. Landlord Tarachand died on August 12, 1959. Before his death, landlord Tarachand had executed a will and bequeathed the suit land to Ashoklal Gugale who was petitioner No. 5 before the High Court Acting upon the will of Tarachand, Ashoklal got his name mutated in the revenue record in respect of suit land in his favour as owner. On the date of mutation, Ashoklal was a minor. A Sec. 32-G imposes a statutory duty on the Agricultural l ands Tribunal ('Tribunal' for short) to commence enquiry for determining the price of the land which is the subject matter of compulsory purchase. The Tribunal is required to issue notice to (a) all tenants who u/s 32 are deemed to have purchased the lands (b) all landlords of such lands and (c) all other persons interested therein to appear before it on the date specified in the notice. Pursuant to such notice when the parties appeared before the Tribunal it was claimed on behalf of landlord that Ashoklal, the recorded owner was a minor and therefore the sale was postponed u/s 32-F. The Tribunal failed to exercise jurisdiction in not noticing the obvious fact that the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ly null and void order enabled the minor landlord to sell the land by a registered deed on Nov. 13, 1967 to the petitioner No. 1 and one Haribhav and the latter in turn transferred his interest in favour of other petitioners, Misled by the two orders of the Tribunal holding that the sale was postponed Janardhan served a notice on oct. 6, 1971 as envisaged by sec. 32-F that as the landlord has attained majority he is entitled to purchase the land and that the price of land be determined. Presumably, pursuant to this notice, the Tribunal commenced proceedings under sections 32-G and 32-F of the Tenancy Act for determining the purchase price. It was contended on behalf of the petitioners transferees from Ashoklal before the Tribunal that as Janardhan has already handed over possession to Ashoklal he had no subsisting interest in the land and therefore he had no right to purchase the land u/s 32-F and that the proceedings be dropped. This contention found favour with the Tribunal which overlooked the legal position that Janardhan had become the deemed purchaser on April 1, 1957. Janardhan died on November 29, 1976 leaving respondent his son as the sole heir. After the death of Janardha ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ecial leave. Mr. U.R. Lalit, learned counsel appearing for the appellants strenuously urged that the orders made by the Tribunal u/s 32-F and by the Tenancy Aval Karkoon in a proceeding u/s 14 read with sec. 29 of the Tenancy Act and the statement of Janardhan and the respondent would clearly show that these orders were at best erroneous but not void and cannot be ignored as nullity in subsequent proceedings. The Tenancy Act was comprehensively amended by Amending Act IS of 1957. The amendment brought in a revolutionary measure of agrarian reforms making tiller of the soil the owner of the land. This was done to achieve the object of removing all intermediaries between tillers of the soil and the State. Sec. 32 provides that by mere operation of law, every tenant of agricultural land situated in the area to which the Act applies shall become by the operation of law, the owner thereof. He is declared to be a deemed purchaser without anything more on his part. A Constitution Bench of this Court in Sri Ram Narain Medhi v. The State of Bombay(1) held that: the title of the landlord to the land passes immediately to the tenant on the tillers' day and there is a completed p ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... y on the tillers' day. Sec. 32-F bas an overriding effect-over s. 32 as it opens with a non-obstante clause. The combined effect of sec. 32-F and 32 would show that where the landlord is under no disability as envisaged by sec. 32-F the tenant of such landlord by operation of law would become the deemed purchaser but where the landlord is of a class or category as set out in sec. 32-F such as a minor, a widow or a person subject to any mental or physical disability, the date of compulsory sale would be postponed as therein provided. Now, if Tarachand, the landlord was under no disability and he was alive on April 1, 1957 and he was the owner, his tenant Janardhan became the deemed purchaser. This conclusion, in our opinion, is unassailable. If Janardhan became the owner on April 1, 1957 all subsequent proceedings in which the Tribunal held that the date of purchase was postponed because the recorded owner Ashoklal was a minor were without jurisdiction. The Tribunal had absolutely no jurisdiction to proceed on the footing that the date of sale was postponed. It is neither an incorrect order nor an erroneous order as was sought to be made out but Tribunal lacked the jurisdicti ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ant, landlord Ashoklal was nontheless not entitled to recover possession because, when Janardhan, the deemed purchaser agreed to hand over possession subject to the provision of sec. IS, the land would be at the disposal of Collector under sec. 32 P. Landlord even in such a situation is not entitled to be restored to possession without bringing his case under sec. 15 which appears not to be the case of landlord. And look at the bona fides of the landlord. Ashoklal as soon as he managed to obtain wholly void order for possession, managed to transfer the lands to the petitioners within a span of less than 2 weeks. It would thus appear that even Ashoklal and his next friend must be presumably aware of the void character of the order and therefore posthaste with a view to thwarting any further legal proceeding and confuse Janardhan, Ashoklal through his next friend managed to transfer the land to the petitioners and let the petitioners fight the deemed purchaser. A measure whereby tenant was to be made the owner of the land cannot be permitted to be defeated by such jugglery of orders by low-level revenue officers who hardly knew what they were doing. Look at the lack of knowledge of l ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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