ISHWARDAS Vs. MAHARASHTRA REVENUE TRIBUNAL NAGPUR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this appeal, by special leave, the appellant attacks the judgment and order, dated July 27, 1964, of the Nagpur Bench, of the Bombay High Court, dismissing Special Civil Application No. 322 of 1964.

(2.) Badridatta Ishwardas Trust is a public charitable trust, maintaining a Dharamshala. The appellant, the Managing Trustee of the said Trust, filed an application, under the provisions of the Bombay Tenancy and Agricultural Lands 'Vidarbha Region) Act, 1958 (Bombay Act XCIX of 1958) (hereinafter called the Act) , before the Naib Tehsildar, Balapur (the third respondent, herein) , to direct the fourth respondent, the tenant, to surrender four acres of land, on the ground that the lands were required for being cultivated personally. According to the appellant, the necessary notices, terminating the tenancy of the fourth respondent, had been given, under the Act, and that he was entitled to get possession of the lands, in question.

(3.) The fourth respondent raised various objections, on merits; but all those objections were overruled, by the third respondent. The fourth respondent raised a legal contention that, inasmuch as the lands, in question, belonged to the Trust, the appellant-Managing Trustee could not be considered to be the landlord. He further contended that the Trust itself could not 'cultivate personally' the lands and, therefore, the application, filed by the appellant, was not maintainable. The third respondent overruled these objections, on the ground that the Managing Trustee was a person in whom the properties of the Trust vested in law and, therefore, it was open to him to make a claim for possession of the lands from a tenant, on the ground that they were required for 'personal cultivation.. In this view the third respondent further held that the Managing Trustee was a landlord, under the Act, entitled to get possession of the lands. Finally, the third respondent ordered the tenant to surrender possession of the land, as required by the appellant.