BABUBAO RAOJI AND ANOTHER Vs. STATE OF MAHARASTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The two petitioners question the validity of the orders made by the authorities under the provisions of the Maharashtra Agricultural Lands (Ceiling on Holdings) Act, 1961 (hereinafter called the Act), the last order being that of the Maharashtra Revenue Tribunal passed on June 12, 1969, rejecting the appeal of these two petitioners.

(2.) The petitioner No. 1 Baburao had filed a return under the provisions of the Act showing that he had 134 acres of land in different villages. Certain disputes were raised by him with respect to fields survey Nos. 22, 18 and 290/2, in that he was a tenant and had surrendered the tenancy rights. That has been negatived by both the Courts. He further contended in respect of field survey No. 19 that he was only in possession of half of the land and the other half was with one Vithabai, the widow of the cousin of Baburao. There appears to have been certain proceedings with respect to that field and the authorities came to the conclusion that the entire field No 19 has to be included in the property of Baburao. No exception is taken to that portion of the order in this petition.

(3.) The main ground before the authorities under the Act was that Baburao, the petitioner No. 1, was not an individual as such but represented a joint Hindu family consisting of petitioner No. 2 Ramrao and other members, numbering about 10. It was further the case that there were two fields in the name of Ramrao being Nos. 14/1 and 12/1 of village Atkali and that is also the property of this family of Baburao and Ramrao. It was, therefore, claimed that this was a case governed by the provisions of section 6 of the Act and the family represented by Baburao was entitled to retain the land to the extent of 2 ceiling areas.