RADHIKA PRASAD Vs. STATE OF M P BHOPAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a petition by Radhika Prasad directed against the orders of the Board of revenue, Madhya Pradesh and the revenue authorities subordinate to it rejecting his claim to settlement of khasra No. 194, area 1. 55 acres, situate in village karela, under Section 5 (h) of the M. P. Abolition of Proprietary Rights Act, 1950.

(2.) THE relevant facts are these. During the Chakbandi proceedings of the year 1937, old khasra Nos. 1172/2 and 1195/2, area 1. 55 acres which were then recorded as bagicha, were renumbered as khasra No. 194 and entered as khudkasht as presumably the land had been brought under cultivation. In the subsequent years, the land was apparently allowed to be fallow. So, in the annual papers for the years 1950-51 and onwards, the land was recorded as grass. It was, therefore, treated as having vested in the Stats under Section 4 of the Act.

(3.) AFTER a lapse of 16 years from the date of vesting, the petitioner on 13-2-1967. applied to the Sub-Divisional Officer under Section 47 (2) of the M. P. Land revenue Code, 1959, alleging that the land was grove and, therefore, should have been settled with him under Section 5 (h), but had been wrongly recorded as grass in the annual papers and so, wrongly treated as having vested in the State, in support of his application, the petitioner filed the Chakbandi Adhikar Abhilekh of the year 1937, showing the land as bagicha prior to the consolidation of holdings. He also filed the khasra Panchsala for the years 1950-51 to 1955-56, showing that there were trees standing on the land, though it had by then been recorded as grass. Later on, the land was entered as Nazul Sarkar.