STATE OF UTTARAKHAND Vs. SRI KASHMIRI LAL NARANG

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Upon hearing the learned counsel for the parties, this Court made the following judgment: By filing these writ applications under Article 227 read with Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner i.e. State of Uttarakhand has prayed for writ in the nature of certiorari quashing the judgment and order dtd. 1/3/2006, annexure no. 1 to the writ petition, passed by the Commissioner, Kumaon Mandal, Nainital and to uphold the order dtd. 19/7/2003, passed by the Prescribed Authority (Ceiling)/Additional Collector (F & R) Udham Singh Nagar.

(2.) The respondent late Kashmiri Lal was a tenure holder. Against him, ceiling proceedings under the Imposition of Ceiling and Land Holdings Act, 1960 (hereinafter referred to as the Act for brevity) was initiated, bearing Ceiling Case No. 51/27 in the year 1993-94 to adjudicate why the area of 11.722 hectare of lands, out of the total land i.e. 23.022 hectare, owned by said late Kashmiri Lal shall not be determined as surplus land under the provisions of aforesaid Act. On 26/9/1995, the Prescribed Authority declared land of late Kashmiri Lal, measuring 11.722 hectare of irrigated land, as surplus. The said order was put to challenge by late Kashmiri Lal in Ceiling Appeal No. 8/8 of 1996-97 before the Commissioner, Kumaon Mandal, Nainital which was disposed of by the Additional Commissioner (Judicial), Kumaon Mandal, Nainital on 28/11/1997 remanding the matter to the Prescribed Authority to decided the matter on merits. Thereafter, the Prescribed Authority (Ceiling)/Additional Collector, Udham Singh Nagar, disposed of the matter declaring 11.722 hectares of irrigated land as surplus. The order dtd. 24/2/1999 was challenged before the learned Commissioner, Kumaon Mandal, Nainital in Appeal Nos. 3/4 of 1998-99, 4/2 of 1998-99 and 5/8 of 1998-99, which was initially disposed of on 30/12/1999 and the impugned order dtd. 24/2/1999 was set aside directing the Prescribed Authority to re-consider the matter after issuing fresh notice to late Kashmiri Lal and others. The Prescribed Authority took up the matter, issued fresh notices and after affording reasonable opportunity of hearing to the parties, passed same order declaring 11.722 hectare irrigated land of late Kashmiri Lal as surplus on 19/7/2003. Aggrieved by the said order, deceased/respondent no. 1 filed appeal no. 5/2002-2003. A separate appeal bearing Ceiling Appeal No. 7/2002-03 was preferred by Jawahar Lal and two appeals were preferred by other persons before the Commissioner, Kumaon Mandal, Nainital. It is, however, borne out from the record that since the land in question were same, the learned Commissioner took up hearing of Ceiling Appeal No. 5/2002-2003 and 7/2002-2003 (out of which present writ petition arise) and by virtue of order dtd. 11/7/2005 disposed of the same, allowing all the appeals except 5/2002-2003. The appeal No. 5/2002-03 was allowed in part. The learned Commissioner passed the following order:

(3.) Thereafter, the appeal was again taken up for final disposal by the learned Commissioner, Kumaon Mandal, Nainital, and by virtue of the judgment dtd. 1/3/2006, allowed the appeal along with appeal no. 7/2002-03 holding that late Kashmiri Lal does not have any ceiling surplus land.