GANPAT Vs. JAGMAL AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS order will dispose of Civil Writs Nos. 1753 of 1960, 393 and 397 of 1961 and 456 of 1961 and Civil Miscellaneous Petition No. 3071 of 1961. Civil Writ No. 1753 of 1960 is under Article 226 of the Constitution, Civil Writs Nos. 393 and 397 of 1961 and Civil Writ No. 456 of 1961 are under Article 226/227 and Civil Miscellaneous Petition No. 3071/1961 under Article 227. All these petitions are directed against a similar order passed either by the Commissioner or the financial Commissioner in all these cases setting aside the orders of the revenue authorities below allowing the tenants to purchase the lands in their possessions in pursuance of the rights conferred on them by Section 18 of the Punjab Security of Land Tenures Act (10 of 1953) - -hereinafter referred to as the Act.

(2.) THE Petitioners, in all these petitions, are the tenants of the lands transferred by the landowners by gift to the donees who claimed to be small landowners. It is common ground that the lands in possession of the donees including the donated lands do not put them in the category of landowners. In other words, they are small landowners within the meaning of Sub -section (2) of Section 2 of the Act. The donors, however, in all these cases are landowners. Section 18 permits a tenant of a landowner other than the tenant of a small landowner to purchase land held by him other than the land included in the reserved area of the landowner. Before he can purchase the land he is to satisfy a number of conditions laid down in Section 18 of the Act. It has been found by the appropriate authorities under the Act that the tenants do satisfy those requisite conditions. The controversy is whether these transfers by gift can be recognised in view of certain provisions of the Act. If they are recognised the transferees being small landowners, the tenants' applications for purchase of land under Section 18 of the Act must fail. If, on the other hand, these transfers are not to be recognised, the tenants' applications for purchase of the land must succeed. It is common ground that before the gifts were executed by the landowners in favour of the donees, the tenants, who are seeking to purchase the land under Section 18 of the Act, were the tenants of the transferor -landowners. It is maintained that these transfers have to be ignored in view of the provisions of Section 6 of the Act. This section has been enacted for the purpose of determining the area owned by a landowner for the purposes of the Act. It provides that all transfers of land excepting bona fide sales or mortgages with possession or transfers resulting from inheritance made after the 15th August, 1947, and before the commencement of the Act, that is, the 15th April, 1953, shall be ignored. In other words, a transfer made by a landowner has to be ignored when the question arises as to how much area the landowner holds at the commencement of the Act.

(3.) AT this stage, it will be proper to set out the facts giving rise to these petitions.