SURENDRANATH JANA Vs. STATE OF WEST BENGAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The subject matter and the legal points involved in this application and 101 other applications are the same. The petitioners in all these applications are occupancy raiyats in respect or holdings situated within the State of West Bengal. The question is as to whether by virtue of the West Bengal Estates Acquisition Act 1953 (Act I of 1954) the interests of the petitioners can be acquired by the State. Before I deal with this point, it will be necessary to state in brief how estates in West Bengal came to be acquired. The West Bengal Estates Acquisition Act 1953, which is West Bengal Act I of 1954 (hereinafter referred to as the 'Act') came into operation on the 12th February, 1954 having received the assent of the President. The preamble to the Act states that it is an Act to provide for the State acquisition of estates, of rights of intermediaries therein and of certain rights of raiyats and under-raiyats. Under Section 4 of the Act, "it is provided that the State Government may from time to-time by notification declare that with effect from the date mentioned in the notification, all estates and the rights of every intermediary in each such estate, situated in any district or part of a district specified to the notification, shall vest in the State free from all incumbrances. Under Section 2 (1), "intermediary" has been denned to mean a proprietor, tenure-holder, under-tenure-holder or any other intermediary above a raiyat or a non-agricultural tenant. The word "estate" has not been defined in the Act, but Section 2 (p) lays down that expressions used in the Act and not otherwise defined have in relation to the areas to which the Bengal Tenancy Act 1835 (VIII of 1885) applies, the same meaning as in that Act, and in relation to other areas meaning as similar thereto as the existing law relating to land tenures applying to such areas, permits. Prior to the coming into operation of the Act, land was held by the Zemindar or proprietor and his tenants, who, as described by Section 4 of the Bengal Tenancy Act, were grouped under three heads, namely,

(2.) According to Section 5 (1) of the Bengal Tenancy Act, the word "tenure-holder" means primarily a person who has acquired from a proprietor or from another tenure-holder, a right to hold land for the purpose of collecting rents or bringing it under cultivation by establishing tenants on it and includes also the successors In interest of persons who have acquired such a right. Section 5 (2) defines the word ''raiyat" as meaning primarily a person who has acquired such a right to hold land for the purpose of cultivating it by himself or by members of his family or by servants or labourers or with the aid of partners, and includes also the successors-in-interest of persons who have acquired such a right. Although the object of the Act was to provide for the State acquisition of estates and the rights of intermediaries therein and of certain rights of raiyats and under-raiyats, in the Act as originally framed, the intermediaries dealt with were 'true intermediaries', as described by Bose, J., in the case of Biswanibhar Singh v. State of Orissa, that is to say, the person who holds an interest in the land somewhere between a raiyat and the overlord of the State This however was not all. Chapter VI of the Act' dealt with acquisition of certain khas lands and rent receiving interests. This Chapter VI has undergone three substantial amendments. In fact, it is under the provisions of this Chapter that the interests of the petitioners in these cases are being acquired. It will therefore be necessary to follow the various amendments and to observe the significance thereof. The heading of this chapter as appearing in the original bill and as retained by the Joint Select Committee was "Special provision for the acquisition of certain interests of raiyats and under-raiyats". But in the heading as it was incorporated in the original Act, or in the body of the chapter, there was no mention made of raiyats or under-raiyats The chapter consisted of Sections 49 to 52. Section 49 lays down that the pro-visions of this chapter shall come" into force on such date as the State Government may, by notification in the official gazette, appoint. Section 50 as it originally stood was as follows:

(3.) It is also not necessary to consider the latest amendment, being Amending Act of 1957 (W. B. Act IV of 1957) which came into operation on the 9th March. 1957.