RATNAPRABHABAI Vs. TULSIDAS V PATEL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner who was the original owner and occupant of agricultural lands bearing S. No. 81 admeasuring 3 acres-9 gunthas and S. No. 145 admeasuring 2 acres-34 gunthas situated on the outskirts of village Jetalpur in Vadodara taluka of Vadodara district has come to this court by way of the present petition under Art. 227 of the Constitution of India seeking reversal of the order passed by the Gujarat Revenue Tribunal in Revision Application No. TEN B.A. 218/81 which came to be dismissed by the Revenue Tribunal and as a result the orders passed by the tenancy authorities under the provisions of the Bombay Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act 1948 (hereinafter referred to as the Act) viz the Mamlatdar Baroda and Assistant Collector Baroda in appeal came to be confirmed by the Revenue Tribunal. In order to appreciate the nature of controversy between the parties in the present proceedings it is necessary to glance through a few relevant facts.

(2.) Respondent No. 1 herein is a partnership firm. The said firm wanted to purchase some lands and for that purpose respondent No. 1 contacted the petitioner in 1961. The petitioner agreed to sell the aforesaid lands to respondent No. 1 but as they were agricultural lands situated at village Jetalpur and as they were governed by the provisions of the Tenancy Act which were then applicable it was found necessary to apply to the Collector under sec. 63 of the Tenancy Act for obtaining his permission as respondent No. 1 was not an agriculturist.

(3.) Thereafter the Collector Baroda started an inquiry under sec. 63 of the Act and by his order dated 10/03/1961 he was pleased to grant permission to the petitioner to sell the lands in question to respondent No. 1 on certain conditions. One of the condition mentioned in the said order of the Collector was to the effect that the lands should be used for non-agricultural purpose by respondent No. 1 within one year from the date of getting possession. Pursuant to the aforesaid permission granted by the Collector a sale deed was executed by the petitioner in favour of respondent No. 1 on 24-1-1962 and on the very day possession on the lands conveyed in the document was handed over to respondent No. 1. The sale consideration under the said transaction was to the tune of Rs. 1 0 0 - which were received by the petitioner when the transaction of sale took place as started above. The further case of the petitioner is that respondent No. 1 did not comply with the condition incorporated in the order of permission granted by the Collector under sec. 63 of the Act and the lands in question were not put to non-agricultural use within the period of one year from the date of obtaining of possession of the concerned lands. The case of the petitioner is that the said lands were continued to be used as agricultural lands upto the year 1978 It is further case of the petitioner that the concerned two lands were originally not included in the municipal limits of Baroda city. That by a notification dated 22-6-1964 issued by the Government of Gujarat Rural Development Department the Government of Gujarat in exercise of the powers conferred by sec. 4(2) of the Bombay Municipal Boroughs Act 1925 was pleased to declare that the areas territories of which were shown in the Schedule `A to the notification would get included in the limits of the municipal limits of Baroda Borough Municipality with effect from the date of the notification. The said notification is annexure `C to the petition. Schedule `A to the said notification says that so far as village Jetalpur is concerned the whole village inclusive of all revenue survey numbers being 187 in number got included within the municipal limits of the then existing Baroda Municipal Borough. It is therefore obvious that on the day on which the concerned lands were sold by the petitioner to respondent No. 1 as per the permission of the Collector under sec. 63 of the Act the concerned agricultural lands were outside the Municipal limits of Baroda Borough Municipality and they subsequently got included within the limits of the Baroda Municipal Borough which later on became Baroda Municipal Corporation.