NIRMALABAI Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) ORDER :- The judgments in this writ petition and some other writ petitions were kept reserved to await the decision of the Division Bench of this Court on a reference made by the learned single Judge of this Court (Padhye, J. as he then was) in Special Civil Application No. 1514 of 1977 in regard to the ratio of the decision of another learned single Judge of this Court (V. S. Deshpande, J. as he then was) in Narayanibai v. State of Maharashtra, 1976 Mah LJ 865. The Division Bench has now answered the reference in the above special civil application by its judgment dated 17-9-1984. I am, therefore, delivering the judgment in this case in the light of the aforesaid judgment to which I will refer while considering the ratio of the decision in Narayanibai case upon which heavy reliance is placed in this petition on behalf of the petitioners.

(2.) In this writ petition, the petitioners impugn the orders under the Maharashtra Agricultural Lands (Ceiling on Holdings) Act, 1961 (for short 'Ceiling Act'), determining the surplus land of the family unit consisting of one Motilal Mohobal and his wife Nirmalabai, the petitioner No. 1 in the petition. The landholder Motilal filed a return under Section 12 of the Ceiling Act showing 95.90 acres of land being held by him and his wife Smt. Nirmalabai as on 26-9-1970. The land separately held by Motilal and his wife was as under: Motilal held 48.47 acres and his wife held 47.43 acres. After filing the return, Motilal died on 26-2-1976. 2A. The learned counsel for the petitioners Shri S. N. Kherdekar, Advocate, has raised the following contentions in this petition :

(3.) As regards the first contention regarding constitutionality of the Ceiling Act on the ground that it infringes several fundamental rights of the petitioners, the said contention need not detain me any more because it stands concluded by the decision of the Supreme Court in Wamanrao v. Union of India, AIR 1981 SC 271. The said constitutional challenge, therefore, fails and is rejected.