KRISHNA KUMARI Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Section 10-A of the Punjab Security of Land Tenures Act, 1953 provides that the State Govt. or any officer authorised by it may utilise any surplus area for the resettlement of tenants ejected or to be ejected under clause (i) of sub-section (1) of Section 9. The further implication of this section is that if the surplus area, in the meantime, is acquired by the State Govt. under any law for the time being in force, or it passes to an heir by inheritance, the surplus area so acquired or inherited would not be available for utilisation. It was this statutory provision which was sought to be invoked by the appellants who contended that the surplus area, on the death of the original owner, namely Banarsi Das, was inherited by them and, therefore, it could not be utilised in any way, not even by allotment of this area in favour of Mangat Ram, which was liable to be cancelled, but they lost before all the authorities and have ultimately landed in this Court.

(2.) Leave granted.

(3.) Banarsi Das, father of the appellants, was the owner of considerable land in Village Kanthal Kalan, Dera Kalan, Dera Khurd, District Kurukshetra, Haryana. An area of 137 Kanals 8 Marlas of land was declared as surplus under the Punjab Security of Land Tenures Act, 1953 (hereinafter referred to as the "Punjab Act"), which was later replaced by the Haryana Ceiling on Land Holdings Act, 1972 (hereinafter referred to as the "Haryana Act").