SHIV RAM SINGH Vs. STATE OF U P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN response to the notice issued to the tenure -holder under Section 10(2) of the U.P. Imposition of Ceiling on Land Holdings Act (hereinafter referred to as the Act). One of the objections raised by the tenure -holder was that two of the plots held by him had been wrongly shown as irrigated land. The Prescribed Authority as also the appellate authority, rejected the objection on the ground that the tenure -holder had not filed the relevant documents to show that the plots in question were wrongly classified as irrigated land. In the writ petition challenging the legality of the orders of the Ceiling Authorities, which came up for hearing before Hon'ble Mufti, J. it was contended that irrespective of the fact whether the tenure -holder had filed the relevant documents or not it was the duty of the Prescribed Authority to verify the correctness of the objection by reference to the relevant revenue records. Reliance was placed on the rule laid down in Shital Singh v. State of U.P. : 1978 AWC 449 to the effect that in view of Section 4 -A of the Act it is the duty of the Prescribed Authority to verify the correctness of the objections by reference to the relevant revenue records whether they are filed by the objector or not. The learned Judge expressed doubt about the correctness of this view and has referred the following question for the opinion of the Bench:

(2.) SECTION 5 of the Act provides that on and from the commencement of the Uttar Pradesh Imposition of Ceiling on Land Holdings (Amendment) Act, 1972, no tenure -holder shall be entitled to hold in the aggregate, throughout Uttar Pradesh, any land in excess of the ceiling area applicable to him. Proceeding for determination of the ceiling area is initiated by the Prescribed Authority by issuing a general notice published in the Official Gazette, calling upon every tenure -holder holding land in excess of the ceiling area applicable to him on the enforcement of the Act to submit to him within 30 days of the date of publication of the notice a statement in respect of all his holdings in the Form prescribed. The tenure -holder is also required to indicate the plots for which he claims exemption and also those which he would like to retain as part of the ceiling area applicable to him (Section 9(1)).

(3.) BY Sub -section (2) of Section 10 the Prescribed Authority is required to cause to be served upon every such tenure -holder, a notice together with a copy of the statement prepared under Sub -section (1) calling upon him to show cause within a specified period why the statement be not taken as correct. The term "prescribed" has been defined in Section 3(12) of the Act to mean "Prescribed by rules made under this Act." Rule 7 inter alia provides that soon after the issue of general (notice in C.L.H. Form 1, the Prescribed Authority shall, after making necessary enquiries, cause to be prepared a statement in C.L.H. Form 3. C.L.H. Form '3' contains various columns which are to be filled in for purposes of determining the ceiling area as contemplated by Section 5(1) of the Act. In the Form plot numbers, their area, the irrigated area, single crop land, unirrigated area, usar land and grove land etc. have to be shown.