NABIN CHANDRA GANTAYET Vs. STATE OF ORISSA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an application under Article 226 of the Constitution by the owner of wet lands in village Raghunathpur, in Chatrapur Taluk of Ganjam-district, challenging the validity of the Orissa. Tenants Relief Act 1955 (Orissa Act V of 1955) (hereinafter referred to as the Act ).

(2.) IN 1948 the Orissa Legislature passed an Act known as the Orissa Tenants protection Act for the purpose of granting temporary protection from eviction to the tiller of the soil (usually known as Bhagchassis) and also for reducing the produce rent payable by a tenant to his landlord. After the coming into force of the constitution the validity of this Act was unsuccessfully challenged before a Division bench of this Court in the case reported in Sashi Bushan v. Mangal, ILR (1953)Cut 45: (AIR 1953 Orissa 171) (A ). In that decision the full history of the circumstances leading to the passing of the orissa Tenants Protection Act was given and it is unnecessary to repeat the same here. It is sufficient to say that the Legislature thought that the insecurity of tenure of the actual cultivator was mainly responsible for the deficiency in agricultural production and that the incidence of produce rent was so heavy as to leave a very inadequate return to the actual cultivator for his labour and enterprise. It was to remedy these defects that the said Act was passed and it remained on the statute book after being extended from time to time by competent authorities, till 15th April 1955. In 1951 the Orissa Legislature passed the well-known Orissa estate Abolition Act whose main purpose was to eliminate intermediaries between the Government and the actual cultivators by acquiring their rights on payment of compensation. In pursuance of that Act most of the estates of proprietors in North and South orissa have been taken over by Government but there still remains a large class of intermediaries in North Orissa known as tenurehofders whose interests have not yet been acquired. Moreover, there are a number of ryots both in North and South orissa who are in possession of large tracts of land which they are unable to cultivate personally and which are generally settled on produce rent with the bhagchassis who are the actual tillers of the soil, The Tenants Protection Act doubtless gave those Bhagchassis protection from eviction and also substantial reduction in the produce rent payable to their immediate landlord. But as the life of that Act expired on the 15th April 1955 and there was a genuine apprehension that further legislation relating to land reform would be initiated by government resulting in the elimination of other classes of intermediaries between the Government and the actual tiller including even big ryots, there was a danger that these intermediaries would attempt to evict the actual cultivators from their lands on a large scale. With a view to avoid this evil, the Orissa 'tenants Relief Act was passed on the 21st April 1955, and the Preamble to that Act which makes the object clear is as follows:-

(3.) HAVING thus protected the tenants from eviction the Legislature thought that every landlord should have at least a minimum of 7 standard acres of land for the purpose of personal cultivation and hence, in Section 4 of the Act provided for his choosing such seven acres for his cultivation even by evicting tenants through the intervention of the Revenue authorities. Sub-section (7) of Section 4, however, saved the rights of tenants from such eviction if they were already protected from eviction by any other law in force prior to the date of commencement of the Act. The other provisions of the Act are mainly procedural and consequential. I shall refer to the same subsequently while discussing the constitutional question.