JUTHAN SINGH Vs. BADRI AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These two connected writ petitions are directed against orders passed by the Sub-Divisional Officer of Chandoli (District Banaras) on 13-3-1954, allowing an application under Section 232 of the Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act that had been filed by opposite-parties 1 and 2, and against the subsequent orders of the Additional Commissioner, Banaras, and of the Board of Revenue confirming that decision.

(2.) The basic facts are admitted. Opposite-Parties 1 and 2 were recorded as occupant of the land in suit in the year 1356 Fasli and acquired Adhivasi rights therein by virtue of Sec. 20(b) of the Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act. In 1359 Fasli, however, the petitioners were in possession of the land, opposite-parties 1 and 2 having been ejected in execution of a decree obtained against them by the landholder under Sec. 180 of the U.P. Tenancy Act. The petitioners therefore claim adhivasi rights under Sec. 3 of the U.P. Land Reforms (Supplementary) Act, 1952.

(3.) The question is which of the rival sets of adhivasis is entitled to hold possession of the land in suit. The view taken by the S.D.O., the Additional Commissioner and the Board of Revenue is that the Adhivasis who obtained their rights under Sec. 20 of the Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act have a preferential claim as against those who claim Adhivasi rights under the subsequent Act of 1952. It seems to me, however, that this view is fundamentally wrong. If the subsequent Act of 1952 creates rights that conflict and are inconsistent with rights created by the earlier Act of 1950, the provisions of the earlier Act must be treated as having been repeated by the later Act to the extent of that inconsistency. A perusal of Secs. 2 and 3 of the Supplementary Act of 1952 will show moreover that the rights conferred by Sec. 3 of that Act were meant to override any rights to possession that might have accrued to other persons earlier. This Act is declared to apply to all land (other than grove-land) of which any person has become Bhumidhar or Sirdar under Sec. 18 or 19 or Adhivasi under Sec. 20 of the Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act and provides that any person in actual cultivatory possession of such land in 1359 Fasli, who is not already Bhumidhar, Sirdar, Adhivasi or Asami, shall become Adhivasi (or Asami, as the case may be) and shall be entitled to all the rights conferred on an Adhivasi (or an Asami) by the Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act. The Supplementary Act thus contemplates a situation where there is land in which one person has become Adhivasi under Sec. 20 of the earlier Act but which is in the actual possession of another person in 1359 Fasli; and in such circumstances it gives the rights of Adhivasi (involving the right to retain or regain possession of the land) to that second person. I am satisfied therefore that a person acquiring Adhivasi rights under the U.P. Land Reforms (Supplementary) Act, 1952, is entitled to possession of the land in preference to a person who acquired Adhivasi rights in that land under Sec. 20 of the Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act.