COLLECTOR, KORAPUT Vs. BADAR PUJARI AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) COLLECTOR , Koraput has moved the Board of Revenue to revise, under Section 59(2) of the Orissa Land Reforms Act, the order of the Tahsildar. Nowarangpur passed on 19 February 1975 in his case OLR No. 54 of 1974.

(2.) THESE proceedings were started by the Revenue Officer, Nowarangpur, under Section 42 of the Orissa Land Reforms Act, in respect of Pitambar Pujari, son of Guru Pujari of village Aunli. It was found that 68.97 acres of land had been recorded jointly in the names of Pitambar Pujari, Balaram Pujari. Moniram Pujari and Narasingho Pujari, all sons of Guru Pujari. During enquiry it emerged that Pitambar Pujari had died leaving a wife, three married sons and two grandsons. The other three brothers had their wives and nine children. A draft statement was published treating, all the twenty four persons as one "family" and proposing a ceiling area of 18 standard acres.

(3.) LATER a petition was filed before the Collector to move the Board of Revenue for revision. In moving the Board the Collector has suggested that far from treating the joint holders as four separate "persons" the Board of Revenue ought to hold that they are a body of individuals and that therefore the ceiling area should be reduced from 18 acres to 10 acres.