RAM PYARE Vs. RAM NARAIN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Matbar Mal, who had Sirdari rights over the disputed land, deposited an amount equal to ten times the land revenue payable on the land in order to acquire Bhumidhari rights. This he could do under S. 134 of the U. P. Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act, 1950 as it then stood. The deposit was made on October 28, 1961. On the same day, Matbar Mal sold the land to the present appellant. On October 30, 1961, a certificate to the effect that he had acquired Bhumidhari rights was issued to Matbar Mal under S. 137 of the U. P. Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act, 1950. Thereafter the sons of Matbar Mal filed the suit out of which the present appeal arises for cancellation of the deed of sale executed by Matbar Mal on October 28, 1961 in favour of the defendants. The suit was dismissed by the Court of the Additional Munsif and the appeal by the plaintiffs was also dismissed by Court of the Temporary Civil and Sessions Judge, Deoria. On second appeal by the plaintiffs, however, a single Judge of the High Court of Allahabad allowed the appeal following a Division Bench judgment of the same Court in Dhani Ram v. Jokhu (Second Appeal No. 4276 of 1964) and decreed the suit. The defendant has preferred this appeal by special leave under Art. 136 of the Constitution.

(2.) The ground on which the second appeal was allowed by the High Court was that the Sirdar who deposited the requisite amount acquired Bhumidhari rights not from the date of deposit but from the date of the grant of the Bhumidhari certificate, and, therefore, Matbar Mal who executed the sale deed on October 28, 1961 had no right to execute the same on that day as he acquired Bhumidhari rights with effect from October 30, 1961 only, which was the date of the issuance of the Bhumidhari certificate.

(3.) Before the U. P. Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act, 1950 was amended in 1962, S. 134 in so far as it is relevant stood as follows: