TMI Blog2015 (2) TMI 1395X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... he land of the Company, the share holders and the Appellants herein to find out whether the land revenue records of the land of the villages referred to supra are destroyed and fabricated on that basis the declarants have declared that they do not own surplus land, the State Government has not passed effective orders at this stage to take away the valuable rights of the Appellants as claimed by them and therefore, the question of giving opportunity to them at this stage and conducting enquiry before passing the orders is wholly untenable in law, as the orders are only administrative in nature by appointing an officer to enquire into the alleged fraud on the officers, who have decided the declarations of the share holders and sub-lessees favourably on the basis of fabricated revenue records by destroying original records of the land of villages referred to supra, with the deliberate intention to come out from the clutches of the Act. The rights of the Appellants are not affected on the date of passing of the orders by the State Government. The orders impugned in the writ petitions which are affirmed by the High Court, are perfectly legal and valid and therefore, the same do ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 31.10.1989 and in supersession of those orders, the Government has designated the Assistant Commissioner of Land Records, Pune as Enquiry Officer which was subsequently designated the Deputy Commissioner of Pune Division as the Enquiry Officer. 3. For the sake of brevity, the relevant brief resume of facts and legal contentions urged on behalf of the parties in C.A. @ SLP (c) No. 9710 of 2007 are stated in this judgment with a view to find out as to whether this Court is required to exercise its appellate jurisdiction Under Article 136 of the Constitution of India to interfere with the impugned judgment and order of the High Court and the orders passed by the Maharashtra State Government impugned in the writ petitions. The Saswad Mali Sugar Factory Ltd., Malinagar, District Solapur is a Company registered some time in the year 1932-1933 under the provisions of the Indian Companies Act 1956. The Company purchased 1500-1600 acres of perennially irrigated land at Akluj, Bijwadi, Tambave and Mahalung Villages in Malshiras Taluka. During the said period, the Company took 5000 acres of land on lease from the various land owners in the said villages and thereafter, created sub-leas ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... he share holders were convicted for different offences and accordingly, sentenced them to undergo imprisonment for the period mentioned in the judgment and order of the Special Judge. Aggrieved by the aforesaid judgment and order of the Special Judge, the accused persons preferred criminal appeals before the High Court which passed judgments and orders dated 6.2.1985, 2.4.1985, 20.4.1985 and 23.4.1985 respectively dismissing the said appeals. The accused persons preferred special leave petitions before this Court which were also dismissed in the year 1985. 6. The State Government forwarded the aforesaid judgment and order of the Special Judge in criminal cases to the District Collector asking him to conduct enquiry and determine the surplus land involved in the cases. In view of the aforesaid conviction and the order of sentence passed by the Special Judge and confirmed by the High Court and this Court, the State Government in exercise of its power Under Section 14(4) of the Act vide order dated 27.9.1991 designated the Asstt. Commissioner, Pune Division as Enquiry Officer to make an enquiry pertaining to the list of bogus land holders. 7. Some of the Appellants in the connec ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... hasers of the land from the share holders, and they have acquired constitutional right upon their land holdings Under Article 300A of the Constitution of India and therefore, it is totally impermissible in law for the State Government to pass the impugned order as the same is without jurisdiction for the reason that Section 45(2) of the Act, only confers power upon it to exercise its suo motu revisional power within three years from the date of passing of the orders in the land ceiling cases and orders passed in the appeals and call for the records in the revisional proceedings to examine the proprietary of such orders passed in the land ceiling proceedings of the land Under Section 21 of the Act on the declaration made by the holders of the land Under Section 6 of the Act, declaring that the declarants do not own the surplus lands under the Act, which orders were the subject matter of appeals at the instance of the State Government and its officers before the appellate authority and the same came to be dismissed on merits by the appellate authority after hearing them and the said judgments and orders have attained finality and the State Government has not chosen to exercise its su ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Naphade appearing on behalf of the private Respondents/land owners at whose instance the criminal cases were registered against the accused persons on their representation, the State Government has passed the impugned order. He has submitted that the Company has taken nearly about 5000 acres of the land from its owners and purchased 1500 acres of land in different villages in Maharashtra State viz. Akluj, Bijwadi, Tambave and Mahlung in Malshiras Taluka and that land has been wrongfully retained by the Company, share holders and the so called sub lessees by giving false declarations under the provisions of the Act on the basis of the fabricated land revenue record in relation to the land involved in these cases. 11. He further submits that as per the provisions of the Land Ceiling Act, the ceiling limit of holding of land by one person is 18 acres of agricultural wet land. The undisputed fact is that the land holding tenants were 125 as on the date when the Act came into force. The same has been illegally increased to 384 sub-leases to circumvent the provisions of the Act by playing fraud on the competent revenue authorities by the declarants by fabricating and creating land rev ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... iling Act to an extent of 3000 and odd acres of land which amounts to deprivation of the land holdings of the land owners, who have leased their land in favour of the Company and they are entitled to get their land back after declaring the holdings of the Appellants as surplus after conducting an enquiry and if it is found the orders passed in favour of the declarants are illegal as they have played fraud on the officers, which will be the valuable fundamental and statutory rights conferred upon the land owners, who are the beneficiaries and in such an eventuality the Fundamental Rights that would be accrued in their favour Under Articles 19(1)(g) and 21(1) of the Constitution of India read with Section 21 of the Act, have been illegally deprived of by them by indulging in fraudulent acts. It is contended that the plea of the Appellants that the exercise of power by the State Government in passing the order Under Section 14(4) of the Act at no stretch of imagination can be termed as illegal for want of jurisdiction on the ground that it is barred by limitation, and therefore, he submits that the appeals are liable to be rejected as they are devoid of merit. 12. He has also furth ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... in relation to the revenue records of the land in question, which are fabricated after destroying the original revenue records, with a view to make unlawful enrichment by the declarants and therefore the same has to be examined by the Enquiry Officer after going through the correctness of the entries in the relevant revenue records pertaining to the land with reference to the provisions of Land Revenue Code and he can find out the modus operandi adopted by the share holders of the Company in creating sub-leases in respect of the land in favour of 384 persons to overcome the ceiling provisions of the Act, so as not to get their land holdings declared as surplus by creating the alleged fictitious entries in the revenue records without following provisions of the Land Revenue Code and destroying the original revenue records. The same cannot be objected to by the Appellants, at this stage as their rights are not affected and it is premature to examine their claims as has been urged in the proceedings and there are no civil consequences upon them. 15. The other untenable contention urged on behalf of the Appellants that the Appellants have not been heard before passing the impugned ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... inting the Sub-Divisional Officer as an Enquiry Officer at the first instance and later on Deputy Commissioner of Pune was appointed to enquire into the matter which is in the larger public interest. 18. The said order is passed by the State Government only to enquire into the land holding records with a view to find out as to whether original land revenue records have been destroyed and fabricated to substantiate their unjustifiable claim by playing fraud upon the Tehsildar and appellate authorities to obtain the orders unlawfully in their favour by showing that there is no surplus land with the Company and its share holders as the valid subleases are made and they are accepted by them in the proceedings Under Section 21 of the Act, on the basis of the alleged false declarations filed by the share holders and sub-lessees Under Section 6 of the Act. The plea urged on behalf of the State Government and the de-facto complainants-owners, at whose instance the orders are passed by the State Government on the alleged ground of fraud played by the declarants upon the Tehsildar and appellate authorities to get the illegal orders obtained by them to come out from the clutches of the lan ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ted by us and the said provision is extracted hereunder: 162. Extent of executive power of State Subject to the provisions of this Constitution, the executive power of a State shall extend to the matters with respect to which the Legislature of the State has power to make laws Provided that in any matter with respect to which the Legislature of a State and Parliament have power to make laws, the executive power of the State shall be subject to, and limited by, the executive power expressly conferred by the Constitution or by any law made by Parliament upon the Union or authorities thereof Council of Ministers. 20. The submission made by the learned senior Counsel Mr. Shekhar Naphade that having regard to the magnitude of the alleged fraud creating 384 sub-leases illegally in place of 125 sub-leases in respect of the land in question to defraud the State Government and the owners of the land who had leased originally in favour of the Company with a view to see that the share holders, sub-lessees to come out from the clutches of the land ceiling provisions of the Act in respect of the land involved in these proceedings with a view to deprive the legitimate statutory rights of ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... y before passing the orders is wholly untenable in law, as the orders are only administrative in nature by appointing an officer to enquire into the alleged fraud on the officers, who have decided the declarations of the share holders and sub-lessees favourably on the basis of fabricated revenue records by destroying original records of the land of villages referred to supra, with the deliberate intention to come out from the clutches of the Act. Therefore, the rights of the Appellants are not affected on the date of passing of the orders by the State Government. Therefore, the contentions urged by the learned senior Counsel on behalf of the Appellants referred to supra are wholly untenable and the same are liable to be rejected and accordingly rejected. 22. For the reasons stated supra we do not want to go into the merits of the case. Apart from the said reasons, we have very carefully scrutinized the impugned common judgment and order of the High Court and the orders of the State Government and we do not find any reason whatsoever to interfere with the same as none of the legal contentions urged on behalf of the Appellants have got any merit consideration. In our considered vi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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