LALA ATMA RAM Vs. THAKUR SADHU SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) On May 12, 1931, two brothers, Agar Singh and Nandlal Singh, who were proprietors of a one-third share in the village Bajika, situated in Tahsil Sirsa of the Hissar district, entered into an agreement with the appellant, Rai Sahib Lala Atma Ram, to sell the whole of their estate in that village to him for Rs. 52,000. In the deed of agreement they set out the reasons for selling the land in these terms :-

(2.) As they were members of an agricultural tribe notified under a special statute called the Punjab Alienation of Land Act, XIII of 1900, and the proposed vendee Rai Sahib Lala Atma Ram was not a member of an agricultural tribe, they could not sell the land to him without obtaining the sanction of the Deputy Commissioner of the District to the sale. They accordingly recited in the agreement that they had applied to the Deputy Commissioner for permission to sell the land, and that after obtaining the required sanction they would execute a sale deed in favour of the vendee.

(3.) Sub-section (3) of Section 3 of the statute imposes upon the Deputy Commissioner, dealing with such an application for sanction to sell land, the duty of making an enquiry into the circumstances of the proposed alienation; and it was only after considering the result of the enquiry required under the law that the Deputy Commissioner made an order on September 1, 1931, sanctioning the sale. After obtaining the requisite sanction, both the brothers jointly executed in favour of Rai Sahib Lala Atma Ram on September 22, 1931, a deed of sale in respect of the land, and received Rs. 48,812, annas 10 and pies 9, in the presence of the Sub-Registrar who registered the deed, and also admitted to have received the balance of the price as set out in the document. The balance, which amounted to only Rs. 3,187-5-3, included Rs. 800 received by them as earnest money, and Rs. 1,500 deposited with the vendee for the redemption of a part of the land from a mortgagee, and about Rs. 800 for payment by him to Government on account of the arrears of land revenue and water rate due from them.