MOTA SINGH Vs. FINANCIAL COMMISSIONER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Letters Patent Appeal Nos. 18, 19 and 31 arise from the judgments of the learned Single Judge dismissing the Civil Writs 1027 of 1961, 1028 of 1961 and 1472 of 1961, by his judgment of the 21st of November, 1963. The petitioner in Civil Writ No. 1027 of 1961 is Mota Singh and in Civil Writ No. 1028 of 1961 the petitioner is Jagjit Singh brother of Mota Singh. Both of them belong to village Bagha Purana, Tehsil Moga, District Ferozepore. The petitioner in the third Civil Writ is Durga Parshad of village Badni Kalan, Tehsil Moga, District Ferozepur. The main legal point involved in these writ petitions as also in the three Letters Patent Appeals is the same viz., if a landowner in the Punjab had sold some land from his holding to third parties and the question for determination and utilization of his surplus area came up before the authorities set up under the Punjab Security of Land Tenures Act, 1953 (Punjab Act X of 1953), hereinafter referred to as the 'Act', could the said surplus area under sub-clause (i) of sub-section (1) of section 9 of the Act be utilized for the resettlement of tenants from the permissible area selected by the landowner under section 5-B(1) of the Act or from the land which had been transferred to the vendees.

(2.) The facts in Mota Singh and Jagjit Singh's cases were identical. Bhoop Singh, their father, in terms of standard acres owned 90 standard acres and 4-1/2 units of land and on his death on 11th March, 1955, the land was inherited by his two sons Mota Singh and Jagjit Singh equally. On 6th September, 1955, each of them sold 3 standard acres and 12 units out of his share to Pirtha Singh and others who were respondents 2 to 10 to the writ petition while respondent No. 1 was the Financial Commissioner, Punjab. Again, on 28th January, 1959, Agricultural Department of the Punjab Government purchased by private arrangement land measuring 12 standard acres and 15-1/4 units from each of them for a seed farm. The reason stated in the sale-deed was that the transfer under the Land Acquisition Act would have caused unnecessary hardship, expense and inconvenience to the vendor and of course would have taken longer. Earlier to the second sale each of these two petitioners had on the 18th of June, 1958, submitted an application in form 'E' for selecting his permissible area under section 5-B of the Act. In this form the proposed sale to the Agricultural Department for a seed farm and the earlier sale to the aforesaid respondents were mentioned. The Sub-Divisional Officer, Moga, acting as Collector under the Act by his order dated the 7th July, 1960 (copy Annexure A), after leaving 30 standard acres as the area for self cultivation by each of these owners, included the remaining area to the extent of 4-2-1/4 standard acres as in the surplus pool. This 4-2-1/4 standard acre's included most of the land which had been sold by Mota Singh and Jagjit Singh to Pirtha Singh etc. Appeal by Pirtha Singh etc. the vendees to the Commissioner, Jullundur Division, was dismissed on 18th October, 1960, and they then went in revision to the Financial Commissioner, Punjab (Shri B.S. Grewal, I.C.S.) who by his order of 27th May, 1961, allowed the revision petition holding that the surplus area should be taken out of the land left as permissible area with each of the petitioners. He was of the view that by entering into the transactions of the sale, the petitioners obtained a double advantage viz. of retaining the permissible area and converting the surplus area into cash which was against the intention of the Act, he went on to observe that such sales and dispositions, if countenanced would give an unfair advantage to unscrupulous persons, who have transferred their burden to others and discriminate against honest and straight forward landowners who accepted the rigour of the law and surrendered their surplus area for resettlement of ejected tenants.

(3.) The facts in Durga Parshad's case (Civil Writ No. 1672 of 1961) were almost similar. Durga Parshad's holdings including mortgagee rights was 58 standard acres and 8-1/2 units out of which in the year 1955 he sold 274 kanals and 7 marlas to respondents 2 to 6 Avtar Singh etc. While making his selection in form 'E' for the permissible area he selected 27 standard acres and 3/4 units which was left with him as unsold area and further requested that he may be allowed to retain the balance area to the extent of 2-1/2 acres out of the area sold by him. The Collector vide his orders dated the 27th January, 1961, despite the opposition of the mukhtiar of the vendees accepted the selection observing that all the transfers and dispositions made in the surplus area after the 15th April, 1953, were to be ignored for the purposes of assessment of surplus area. The Commissioner, Jullundur Division, vide his orders dated the 6th April, 1961, dismissed the appeal of the vendee, but in their revision petition the Financial Commissioner, Shri B.S. Grewal by his orders of the 11th August, 1961, reversed the Commissioner's orders and found in favour of the vendees. The petitioners in all these three writ petitions have impugned the respective orders of the Financial Commissioner.