ALOK KUMAR AGRAWAL Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Miscellaneous Appeal filed under Section 11 of the Bihar Public Land Encroachment Act (Act 15 of 1956), is against an order elated the 9th of January, 1976, of the Sub-divisional Magistrate, Begusarai. When it was placed before us under the heading "Under Order 41, Rule 11, Civil Procedure Code", a question arose as to whether the appeal would still lie to this court in view of the Bihar Public Land Encroachment (Amendment) Ordinance, V 1975 (Bihar Ordinance No. 210 of 1975), by which the old Section 11 providing for appeals has been substituted by a new section, thereby taking away the appellate jurisdiction of this Court.

(2.) According to the old Section 11. an appeal against the final order of the Collector of a district lay to the High Court if the valuation of the subject-matter was Rs. 10, 000.00 or above, and in other cases, to the District Judge. According to the amendment brought in by the Ordinance an appeal has now been provided to the Collector of the district if the order in question is passed by any officer other than the Collector, and to the Commissioner of the Division, if such an order is passed by the Collector of the District. The Ordinance is dated the 4th December, 1975. Its Hindi version was published in the Bihar Gazette on the 5th December. 1975. (Extraordinary), but its English translation was published on the 22nd December, 1975. A question, therefore, arises as to whether in view of the amendment of Section 11 of the Act, taking away the appellate jurisdiction of this court by the amending ordinance, the appellants are entitled to maintain the present appeal in this court. The question was argued at some length and considering the importance of the question raised, we thought it desirable to pass a considered order at this very stage.

(3.) The argument of Mr. Basudeva Prasad appearing for the appellants is that the publication of the Hindi version of the amending Ordinance, which although became a law, would not be enforceable until its English version was published on the 22nd December 1975. On this basis he contended that as the proceeding in question was instituted on the 8th December, 1975, although subsequent to the publication of the Hindi version, but prior to the publication of the English version of the amending ordinance, the right of the appellants must still be governed according to the old Section 11 which must be deemed to be in existence on the date of the institution of the proceeding, and not according to the amend-ed Section 11.