BENUDHAR DALAI Vs. STATE OF ORISSA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a petition under Article 226 of the Constitution, against the order of the board of Revenue dated 23-9-1955 in Estate Abolition Appeal Case No. 13 of 1955-56.

(2.) THE petitioner claimed to have obtained permanent lease of Survey Plot No. 132 having an area of 61 decimals and 97 decimals out of Survey Plot No. 133 in village Singla, appertaining to touzi No. 794, from the then proprietor of that touzi. When the touzi vested in the Government by virtue of the provision of the orissa Estates Abolition Act, the Collector of Balsore in purported exercise of the powers conferred on him by Clause (i) of Section 5 of that Act annulled the lease on the ground that (i) it was in fact made after the vesting of the touzi in the government and (2) it was made with a view to defeat the provisions of the Act. The petitioner appealed to the President, Board of Revenue who maintained the aforesaid findings of the Collector and dismissed the appeal.

(3.) MR. Pal on behalf of the petitioner urged that as there was a dispute between the parties as regards the date of lease -- the petitioner alleging that it took place sometime in 1944 and the Anchal Adhikary alleging that it took place after the abolition of the touzi --the "collector had no jurisdiction to annul the lease in exercise of his powers under Clause (i) of Section 5 of the Estates Abolition Act and that consequently his order as well as the appellate order of the President, board of Revenue, were without jurisdiction. Mr. Pal relied on a decision of the Patna High Court reported in Umesh Jha v. The state, AIR 1956 Pat 425 (A) where a Division Bench held, on a construction of a similar provision in the Bihar Estates Abolition Act, that the Collector had no jurisdiction to annul any lease made by the proprietor if there was any dispute as to the date of such lease.