JEET SINGH Vs. STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) He facts as found by the courts below are as follows. Jeet Singh the appellant in the Civil Appeal No. 3732 of 1982 had two wives. The first wife is the appellant in the Civil Appeal No. 3733 of 1982. She filed some time in 1966 a criminal complaint against her husband under S. 494 and 109 of the Indian Penal Code. During the pendency of the criminal proceedings they entered into a compromise before a Nyaya panchayat constituted under the U. P. Panchayat Raj Act, 1947 and the same was recorded by the Adalat Nyaya Panchayat Angadpur Mukam, Meerut district and that consent order dated 14/11/1966 recorded by the nyaya Panchayat reads as follows:

(2.) In pursuance of this consent order Hem Raj, the father of Jeet Singh executed a sale deed on 22/11/1966 in favour of Mayawati conveying two bhumidhari plots bearing khasra numbers 157 measuring 17 biswa and 159 measuring 6 biswa 14 biswansis.

(3.) In the proceedings taken under the U. P. Imposition of Ceiling on land Holdings Act, 1960 (hereinafter referred to as the 'ceiling Act') the ceiling Authorities included the plots bearing khasra Nos. 157 and 159 in the holding of Jeet Singh as the land belonging to his wife includible in the holding of her husband. Both Jeet Singh and Mayawati objected to the inclusion of the land in the holding of Jeet Singh on the ground Mayawati is a judicially separated wife and that, therefore, it could not be included in the holding of Jeet Singh. The prescribed authority under the Ceiling Act rejected these contentions. Both Jeet Singh and Mayawati filed separate appeals before the Distt. Judge, Meerut who by his order dated 22/03/1979 dismissed the same in the view that the consent order made by the nyaya Panchayat will not make Mayawati a judicially separated wife. Two separate writ petitions were filed by the two appellants in these appeals and the High court by order dated 20/08/1980 dismissed the writ petitions in the view that since the Nyaya Panchayat had no jurisdiction to deal with matrimonial or divorce cases and by consent of parties no jurisdiction also could be vested in it, and held that on the basis of the consent order made by the Nyaya Panchayat, Mayawati could not be held to be a judicially separated wife.