CHANDRIKA KUER Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner claims to have taken raiyati settlement of survey plot No. 3704 of khata No. 155 from her husband through a rent receipt sometime in 1339 Fasli lying in village Bejha, police station Sakra, in the district of Muzaffarpur.

(2.) The case of the petitioner Is that the land of khata No. 155 was recorded in the survey khatian in the name of Babu Kamla Prasad Singh as occupancy raiyat. Subsequently, there was a Collectorate partition, as a result of which survey plot No. 3704 fell in the patti of Most. Moti Kuer, the mother of Babu Brii Bihari Prasad Narain Singh. The recorded raiyat died, and his property including survey plot No. 3704 devolved upon his legal heir, Babu Bisheshwar Prasad Narain Singh. In 1923 he surrendered survey plot No. 3704 along with other plots in favour of Babu Brij Bihari Prasad Narain Singh the then landlord and husband of the petitioner, through a registered deed of surrender dated the 8th December, 1923. As a result of this surrender, survey plot No. 3704 became bakasht malik land. Thereafter, the petitioner took settlement of survey plot No. 3704 from her husband through a rent receipt in 1339 Fs. After the settlement, the petitioner established a hat thereon. The petitioner has been in physical possession of the said land as her kast land by paying rent to the then landlord and. after the vesting, to the State of Bihar and she has been setting rent receipts for the same from the ex-landlords as well as from the State of Bihar. There was a proceeding under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure in respect of the aforesaid plot No. 3704 which was subsequently converted into a proceeding under Section 145 of the Code of Criminal Procedure in which the State of Bihar was also a party. On the 2nd December, 1957, the possession of the petitioner was declared over the land in question, and a copy of the order is Annexure '1' of the application. The said order of the learned Magistrate has become final, as no title suit has been filed.

(3.) It appears that there was a title suit by Babu Brijendra Prasad Narain Singh in which a proceeding under Order 39, Rule 2(3) of the Code of Civil Procedure was started for disobedience of court's order, against the Block Development Officer. Thereafter, on the 16th August. 1962, the Deputy Collector In-charge Land Reforms, Sadar, Muzaffar-pur, by his order of the said date annulled the settlement of the plot under Section 4(h) of the Bihar Land Reforms Act. On appeal the order was set aside by the Collector. Muzaffarpur, and the case was remanded back for fresh decision. The learned Collector observed in his judgment as under: