GURDIT SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The first appellant is the father of appellants 2 and 3. The property in question belonged to the father of first appellant. By a will executed by him, he bequeathed the property to appellants 2 and 3. After the death of the testator, mutations in favour of appellants 2 and 3 were effected in the revenue records in the year 1996 B. K. (1939). The first appellant managed to get the mutation of the land in his name in 1944 for the reason that he wanted to get licence for a gun. In 1955, when the Pepsu Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act (hereinafter referred to as the Act) came into force, the first appellant was shown to be the owner of the land in the revenue records. Chapter IV-A of the Act was inserted by Pepsu Act No.15 of 1956 on October 30, 1956 and by Section 32A of this chapter, ceiling was placed on the holding of land.

(2.) A suit was filed by appellants 2 and 3 for a declaration that the land belonged to them that the mutation of the land in the name of the first appellant in the revenue records was for the purpose of enabling him to obtain a gun licence and that there was no transfer of the land to first appellant. The first appellant was the only defendant in the suit. He did not contest the suit and it was decreed on February 14, 1961. A few weeks later, the question of declaration of the surplus area of the land in the hands of the first appellant came up for consideration before the Collector of Bhatinda. On the basis of the judgment and decree passed by the Civil Court that there was no transfer of the land to the first appellant, the Collector, by his order dated March 28, 1961, declared that there was no surplus land in the ownership and possession of the first appellant.

(3.) The Act was amended by Act No.16 of 1962 and Section 32-DD was introduced into the Act with retrospective effect from October 30, 1956. That section reads: