AVTAR SINGH Vs. FINANCIAL COMMISSIONER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution, it has been alleged that the petitioners took land measuring 518 Bighas and 4 Biswas on lease from Smt. Shamsher Kaur, respondent No. 5, on fixed rent of Re. 1/- per Bigha for a period of 25 years. The lease deed was registered on February 6, 1953. The Pepsu Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act, 1953, more commonly known as the 'President's Act', was brought into force on December 3, 1953. The petitioners applied before the Prescribed Authority on August 28, 1961, for the grant of proprietary rights on the ground that Mst. Shamsher Kaur respondent No. 5 was a big landlord and that she had not reserved this land for personal cultivation. The Prescribed Authority rejected this application on the ground that the petitioners were related to the landlord. The Collector, on appeal, remanded the case on June 29, 1963, with the direction that the relationship of the parties be examined and case decided afresh in accordance with his observations regarding the productive operation of the President's Act. In the meantime, one Jaswant Singh, who claimed himself to be the son of Smt. Shamsher Kaur, filed a revision petition before the learned Financial Commissioner on the ground that he, being a reversioner, was entitled to get a share out of the holdings in possession of Mst. Shamsher Kaur after her death. This revision was decided by the learned Financial Commissioner, Planning, Punjab, on August 29, 1964. He came to the conclusion that the appeal before the Collector was time-barred and that the petitioners were close relations of Mst. Shamsher Kaur and so they were not entitled to purchase the land in dispute. It is this order of the learned Financial Commissioner, which is being challenged in these proceedings.

(2.) The learned counsel for the petitioners has urged that the view taken by the learned Financial Commissioner on the issue of limitation is untenable. The Prescribed Authority passed the original order on May 15, 1962. The petitioners applied for getting a copy of this order on May 19, 1962. This copy was prepared and supplied to them on May 28, 1962. The appeal was filed on June 16, 1962. Under Section 39 of the Pepsu Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act, 1955 (hereinafter called the Act), the period prescribed for filing an appeal against the order of the Prescribed Authority is 30 days after excluding the time spent in obtaining the copies. It would, thus, be seen that the appeal filed before the Collector was well within time because the Copying Agency had taken nine days for preparing the certified copy.

(3.) The other ground of attack relevant to this issue may also be dealt with. Jaswant Singh had himself applied for being impleaded as a party before the Prescribed Authority. He had merely claimed to be a reversioner and as such entitled to the property after the death of Smt. Shamsher Kaur. In a petition filed by the tenants for the purchase of land, the real parties to the dispute are the landlord, who is in possession of the land, and the tenants themselves. The other relations and reversioners of the landlord are not the necessary parties. If the appeal is filed within time against the necessary parties, the mere inclusion of a proper party at a subsequent date does not render the appeal to be barred by time. In Devidas and others V. Shrishailappa and others, 1961 AIR(SC) 1277 it was observed by the Supreme Court -