PRAVEEN SHANKAR SINGH Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this reference to the Full Bench it is now wholly unnecessary to recount the facts. Suffice it to notice that the controversy herein turns on the language used in Section 45B of the Bihar Land Reforms (Fixation of Ceiling Area and Acquisition of Surplus Land) Act, 1961 which is in the following terms :-

(2.) As before the admitting Bench so before us, the learned counsel for the petitioners reiterated his reference to and reliance on Yamuna Rai v. State of Bihar. It was submitted that on closer examination the same did not, in any way, divert from the line of earlier precedent within the Court. Reference was made to Shiv Shankar Prasad Singh v. State of Bihar, 1982 BBCJ (HC) 362, Shri Thakur Ram Jankiji v. State of Bihar, 1983 0 BLJ 33 and Harishchandra Singh v. State of Bihar, 1984 Pat LJR 988

(3.) Somewhat surprisingly, learned counsel for the respondent State did not pick up the gauntlet of the challenge to the correctness of the view in Yamuna Rai's case, (AIR 1984 Patna 195). Even when pointedly asked. He took up the stand that far from assailing its ratio, he relied thereupon. According to the learned counsel, the observations in the said case, read as a whole, were consistent with the earlier stream of cases.