HARADHAN MANDAL Vs. STATE OF WEST BENGAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner claims to be the owner and occupier, by purchase through registered kobalas, of certain plots of and which form the Char land of the river Hooghly. The said plots are recorded in the name of the petitioner and the State Government is said to have been realising rents from the petitioner in respect of the said plots of land.

(2.) THE petitioner started a brickfield in the said plots of land in the year 1965 under a partnership firm styled as mondal and Co. , Kachari Ghat, Barabazar, chinsura, Hooghly. It is stated that although the said plots are recorded in the settlement records as agricultural holding, the said lands have however been converted into non-agricultural hand subject to the payment of rent at double the existing rent under Section 72 of the West Bengal Non-Agricultural tenancy Act, 1949 by order of the district Magistrate, Estate Acquisition, madia, being respondent No. 2.

(3.) THE petitioner claims that he does not dig any earth of the brick-field land but procures silt by allowing the river water to flood the said brick-field in the monsoon months. The silt thug accumulated is used for moulding bricks after it is mixed with proportionate quantities of sand, water and other materials by human labour and skill. It is stated that no earth of the brick-field is dug or excavated.