KSHETRAPAL SINGH Vs. STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE above noted petitions raise a common question and may conveniently be disposed of by a common judgment.

(2.) THE Petitioners are tenure holders to whom notices, together with copy of the statements prepared under Sub -section (1), have been issued under Sub -section (2) of Section 10 of the U.P. Imposition of Ceiling on Land Holdings Act (hereinafter referred to as the Ceiling Act). Some of the Petitioners filed objections challenging the correctness of the statements prepared by the Prescribed Authority. Thereafter they made applications to the Prescribed Authority asserting that as the villages where their holdings are situate have come under consolidation operations consequent to notifications issued under Section 4(2) of the U.P. Consolidation of Holdings Act (hereinafter referred to as the Consolidation Act), the proceedings under the Ceiling Act cannot continue and should be abated and may be revived after the consolidation operations are complete and notifications under Section 52 of the Consolidation Act are issued. The Prescribed Authority rejected the applications. The view taken by the Prescribed Authority has been challenged in some of the petitions noted above. Other Petitioners have approached this Court challenging the validity of the notices issued under Section 10(2) of the Ceiling Act as also the validity of the U.P. Imposition of Ceiling on Land Holdings (Amendment) Act, 1972 (U.P. Act No. 18 of 1973) on the ground that the said Act is ultra vires as its provisions are violative of Articles 14, 19 and 31 of the Constitution. During the course of hearing the Petitioners specifically gave up the challenge to the validity of the various provisions of the Act and confined their submissions to the question whether the proceedings under the Ceiling Act can be validly continued in view of the fact that the villages where the holdings of the Petitioners ire situate are under consolidation operations.

(3.) IN support of the contention that the proceedings under the Ceiling Act should be declared to have Abated reference was made to Sub -section (2) of Section 5 of the Consolidation Act, which provides: