CHANDI RAM SON OF SHRI THANDU RAM ETC. Vs. THE STATE OF HARYANA THROUGH THE SECRETARY TO GOVERNMENT OF HARYANA, IRRIGATION DEPARTMENT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS order will dispose of 21 writ petitions (Nos. 87, 125, 155, 161, 191, 194, 225, 247, 251, 282, 303, 304; 307, 312, 327, 357, 408, 424, 471, 488 and 646 of 1975), as they challenge the validity and constitutionality of certain provisions of the Punjab Betterment Charges and Acreage Rates Act, 1952 (hereinafter referred to as the Act) and the Rules framed thereunder, as are applicable to the State of Haryana. The Act received the assent of the Governor of Punjab on January 5, 1953, and was published in the Punjab Government Gazette (Extraordinary), dated January 21, 1953, and came into force in the territories comprised in the then State of Punjab on that date. The Patiala and East Punjab States Union also enacted the Pepsu Betterment Charges and Acreage Rates Act, 1954, which was in force in the territories of that State when the merger of the two States of Punjab and Pepsu took place with effect from November 1, 1956. Thereafter, it was considered desirable that in the new Punjab State there should be one Act governing the levy of betterment charges and acreage rates. Consequently, Sub -section (2) of Section 1 was substituted as under by Section 2 of Punjab Act No. 12 of 1958:

(2.) THE object of this enactment was to make a levy from the landowners who irrigated their lands from the various irrigation schemes including Bhakra -Nangal Project undertaken by the State, as contribution towards meeting the expenditure of those projects. The statement of objects and reasons, as published in the Punjab Government Gazette (Extraordinary), dated October 28, 1952, reads as under:

(3.) PROCEDURE for levy of betterment charges. - -(1) At any time after the expiry of one month from the date of the publication of the notification referred to in Section 3, the Government may cause schedule of betterment charges to be prepared for all lands or class of lands included in an irrigation scheme showing the rates at which the charges shall be leviable on the lands and payable by the landowners and occupancy tenants thereof and the proportions in which the charges shall be so payable.