DINABANDHU PANDA Vs. HARIBANDHU PARIDA AND ANR.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE Petitioner, who is a tenant under the provisions of the Orissa Tenants Relief Act filed this application under Article 226 of the Constitution against the order of the Additional Collector of Puri, in revision, holding that the landlord was entitled, under Section 4(1) of that Act, to evict the Petitioner after selecting seven standard acres for his own personal cultivation. The Petitioner has been admittedly holding the land as a tenant and the previous attempt of the landlord to evict him under the provisions of the Orissa Tenants Protection Act was unsuccessful. He thus continued to be a tenant under the provisions of Orissa Tenants Relief Act and his freedom from eviction flows from Section 3 of that Act.

(2.) BUT Sub -section (1) of Section 4 of the Orissa Tenants Relief Act expressly says that "notwithstanding anything contained in Section 3", the landlord has a right to evict a tenant from seven standard acres of land to be selected by him for his personal cultivation. Mr. Misra for the Petitioner, however, urged, relying on Sub -section (7) of Section 4 of that Act that as the Petitioner was already protected from eviction in accordance with the provisions of the Orissa Tenants Protection Act prior to the commencement of the Orissa Tenants Relief Act, Sub -section (1) of Section 4 of the latter Act cannot give any right to the landlord to evict the tenant from any part of the land. According to Mr. Misra the expression any other law in force prior to the date of commencement of this Act occurring in Sub -section (7) of Section 4 of the Orissa Tenants Relief Act must also include the Orissa Tenants Protection Act. The learned Additional District Collector rightly rejected this contention. The Orissa Tenants Protection Act stood repealed with the commencement of the Orissa Tenants Relief Act and the only rights under the former Act which were saved by the latter Act were those specified in Clause (i) of Sub -section (2) of Section 19 of the Orissa Tenants Relief Act. That clause says that any benefit or right which might have been conferred or acquired under the provisions of the Orissa Tenants Protection Act, shall be deemed to have been so conferred or acquired under the provisions of the Orissa Tenants Relief Act. Consequently, on the coming into force of the Orissa Tenants Relief Act the Petitioner must be deemed to be a tenant under that Act and to have acquired the right of non evict ability only in accordance with the provisions of Section 3 of that Act. The right of the landlord to select seven standard acres for personal cultivation, conferred by Sub -section (1) of Section 4 of that Act is "notwithstanding anything in section". Hence the right of non evict ability conferred on the Petitioner must give way before the right conferred on the landlord by Sub -section (1) of Section 4. Sub -section (7) of Section 4 of the Act must be construed to apply only to those laws in force other than the Orissa Tenants Protection Act, in view of the express provision in Section 19 of the Act dealing with the saving of rights notwithstanding the repeal of the Orissa Tenants Protection Act.