CHANDRAPAL SINGH Vs. STATE OF U P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS petition is directed against the order of Prescribed Authority dated 6 -3 -1976 rejecting the application of the Petitioners to implead them in the proceeding for determination of the ceiling area held by one Tukman Singh. The case set up by the Petitioners was that the land in question was ancestral sir and khudkasht of the Petitioners and their brother Tukman Singh. In the year 1954 the Petitioners had filed a suit against their brother Tukman Singh inter alia for permanent injunction restraining the Defendant from cultivating the Bhumidhari land in question and from Interfering with the Plaintiffs' cultivation over the above land. The suit was decreed and the decree was maintained by the High Court on July 6, 1965. It was further pleaded that in the year 1973 a notice under Section 10(2) of the U.P. Imposition of Ceiling on Land Holdings Act was issued to Tukman Singh. The Petitioners on their application were impleaded as party to the proceeding and ultimately the Prescribed Authority held that Tukman Singh did 'not have any surplus land and consequently the notice was discharged. In the year 1976 when a fresh notice was issued under Section 10(2) to Tukman Singh the Petitioners again approached the Prescribed Authority for being impleaded as parties to the proceeding on the allegations set out earlier. The Prescribed Authority rejected the application on the reasoning that since no notice was issued to them under Section 10(2) they could not be impleaded in the proceeding. The view taken by the Prescribed Authority is patently erroneous. The fact that no notice was issued to them could not be made a ground for rejecting the application. In fact if a notice had been issued to them there would have been no occasion to them for making the application for being impleaded in the proceeding. The case pleaded by the Petitioners 'prima facie entitles them to be heard in the proceeding for determination of the ceiling area applicable to Tukman Singh.

(2.) IN the result this petition is allowed. The order dated 6 -3 -1976 is quashed. The Prescribed Authority is directed to implead the Petitioners as parties to the proceeding and afford them an opportunity to establish their case.