AMAR SINGH Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) All the writ petitions covered by this common judgment have been heard together on the admitted premise that they seek to challenge the constitutionality, legality and vires of Sub-section (4) of Section 23 of the Bihar Tenancy Act, 1885 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act'), which has been inserted by Bihar Tenancy (Amendment) Act, 1993 (Bihar Act 21/1993), as well as of provisions in the Bihar Rent Refixation Rules, 1995 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Rules).

(2.) During the hearing of these writ petitions on several dates no dispute or controversy of facts was raised before this Court. All the writ petitions have been argued on the basis of undisputed understanding that on account of fresh assessment of rent under the impugned provisions, treating the land to be under non-permissible industrial or commercial use and, therefore, amenable to revised rent on the basis of its market value, the liability of the petitioners towards rent payable to the State under the Act would increase manifold. In some of the written submissions filed on behalf of the petitioners it has been asserted that the liability of rent under the earlier provisions being almost nominal would now be in lakhs as demonstrated by Annexure-6 series referred to in the written submissions relating to CWJC No. 6269/1998 (Bihar Chamber of Commerce and Ors. v. the State of Bihar).

(3.) Before adverting to the impugned provisions and the submissions, it is deemed imperative that the legislative history of the Act and the relevant words and themes in the Act are noticed in the proper perspective. This is necessary because it is common knowledge that majority of the population of India and also in the State of Bihar, live in villages and the change brought about by the Bihar Act 21 of 1993 is bound to affect the rights and interests of majority of the population, Page 2578 who hold rights in lands as raiyats. Before creation of separate State of Bihar out of State of Bengal in the year 1912, the Bengal Tenancy Act of 1885 governed the province of Bengal which included Bihar also. The history of Bengal Tenancy Act of 1885 is well recorded and there is no difficulty in finding that it was passed to repeal. The Landlord and the Tenant Act (Bengal Act 8 of 1869) and to bring about drastic changes in the law governing Zamindars and raiyats with a view to improve the status of raiyats. It modified and improved "occupancy rights" of a riayat and laid own the conditions on which a raiyat could be evicted. It further laid down the definition of rent under Section 3(5) as - "whatever is lawfully payable or deliverable in money or kind by a tenant to his landlord on account of the use or occupation of the land held by the tenant". Section 3(4) defines landlord as a person immediately under whom a tenant holds, and includes the Government. Section 27 of the Act created a presumption that the rent for the time being payable by an occupancy raiyat shall be presumed to be fair and equitable until the contrary is proved and Section 28 imposed restrictions on enhancement of money rents in any other manner except as provided by the Act. For securing the status of raiyat the Act provided for preparation of record of rights and for survey. The nomenclature of the Act was changed to the present one by Bihar Tenancy (Amendment) Act 1934 and the issues relating to transferability of occupancy was solved by adding new Sections 26-A to 26-O to the Act. A further amendment Act of 1947 brought a revolutionary change in the Act by adding new Section 21A whereby the status of most of the non-occupancy raiyats was elevated to that of occupancy raiyats. The Bihar Land Reforms Act 1950 improved the situation of raiyats further by abolishing the Zamindari system and the occupancy raiyats were declared to hold their lands directly under the Government. Thus, the constant object and purpose of the Act remained as improvement in the condition and status of raiyats.