KHURKHUR Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) KHURKHUR, the petitioner in this criminal revision, has been convicted by the S. D. M. of Varanasi under Section 13 (1) of the U. P. Roadside Land Control Act, 1945, and has been sentenced to pay a fine of Rs. 200, with a further recurring fine of Rs. 20 per day in case of continuing contravention. He filed a revision in the Court of the A. D. M. (J.) Varanasi, and there for the first time raised the plea that the Gazette notification dated 29-12-1951, relied upon by the prosecution for the purpose of showing that the area in question was a "controlled area", had not been made in accordance with law, because the State Government had not published a preliminary declaration in two vernacular newspapers, as required by Sub-section (2) of Section 3 of the Act. The learned A. D. M. (J) repelled this argument on the ground that under Sub-section (7) of Section 3 the notification was conclusive evidence that the area was a "controlled area" and that the prosecution was under no obligation to produce evidence to show that the procedure prescribed in Sub-section (2) had been complied with before the notification was issued. Thereafter the present revision was filed in this Court and came up for hearing before S. D. Singh J. , who being of opinion that it was desirable to obtain an authoritative interpretation of the scope of Sub-section (7) of Section 3 of the Act, referred the following two questions to a larger Bench for decision:-

(2.) AS a matter of fact this whole controversy is totally unnecessary and pointless. On the face of it, it seemed to us highly unlikely that the State Government would have deliberately omitted to follow the procedure laid down in a section of the Act itself and accordingly we inquired from the learned Government Advocate what the factual position was; and the affidavit that was filed on 17-12-1968 in response to this query shows that in actual fact Sub-section (2) of Section 3 of the Act has been fully complied with, Inasmuch as the required notification was duly published in two vernacular newspapers, the 'aaj' and the 'qaumi Awaz', on 24-2-1950 and 23-2-1950 respectively. Copies of the newspapers in question, showing the publication of the notification, are appended to the affidavit.

(3.) HOWEVER, as the questions have been referred to us for decision, we proceed to give our answers thereto. The first question relates to the scope of Sub-sections (1) and (7) of Section 3 of the U. P. Roadside Land Control Act, which run as follows:--