JASHODABAI Vs. COMPETENT AUTHORITY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) PETITIONERS call in question the proceedings drawn and the orders passed therein, under the provisions of the Urban Land (Ceiling & Regulation) Act, 1976 (for short, 'the Act') by respondents Nos. 1 and 2.

(2.) PETITIONER No. 1 Jashodabai is the wife of petitioner No. 2 Girdharilal. Petitioner No. 3 Laxminarain is their son. Certain lands situated at Ujjain and village Pandyakhedi which admittedly fell within the Urban area, formed part of two separate holdings owned separately by petitioner Jashodabai and Girdharilal. They both in the year 1978 -79 had filed returns in respect of their respective holdings under Section 6 of the Act. Two separate ceiling cases were accordingly registered and proceeded with by the Competent Authority under the provisions of the Act.

(3.) PETITIONERS seek to impugn the aforesaid proceedings and the orders mainly on two grounds; one, that the two holdings in question were in fact held jointly by the petitioner Jashodabai and Girdharilal and the Competent Authority could not have, therefore, initiated separate proceedings in respect of those holdings and for the purpose of declaring any part of those holdings as surplus, the entire land should have been treated as one holding belonging jointly to the petitioners; and two, that at the relevant point of time, petitioner No. 3 Laxminarain, the son of petitioners Nos. 1 and 2, was major aged about 23 years and was entitled to share in the holding for the purpose of computing as to whether or not the petitioners hold land in excess of the ceiling limit.