FATEH SINGH Vs. GRAM PANCHAYAT RANSI GAON

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS Writ Petition has been filed under Article 226 of the Constitution by Fateh singh and it arises Out of the following circumstances :---The Gram Panchayat, Ransi Gaon, Tehsil Bilara. filed an application under Section 6 of the Rajasthan Relief of Agricultural Indebtedness Act, 1957 (hereinafter called the Act) against the petitioner for the determination of Pan-chayat's debt which the Panchayat claimed as damages from the petitioner for the breach of contract. The petitioner filed a petition before the Debt Relief Court that the liability which was sought to be fastened on him by the Gram Panchayat did not fall within the definition of the term "debt" as given in the Act. The Debt Relief court held that the provisions of the Act were applicable for the debt for which the Gram Panchayat had filed an application under Section 6 of the Act. A revision petition was filed against that order of the Debt Relief court before the learned District Judge, Jodhpur. who, by his judgment dated 5th January. 1970, upheld the order of the Debt Relief Court and laid down that the definition of the term "debt" was quite comprehensive and it includes all the liabilities that can be measured in terms of money.

(2.) BY filing this Writ Petition the petitioner has challenged the correct-ness of the judgment of the Debt Relief Court and that of the learned District Judge, inter alia, on the grounds that the word, "debt" does not include the unliquidated damages and that under Clause (k) of Section 4 of the Act the debt payable to the local authority could not be adjudged under the provisions of the Act.

(3.) NO reply has been filed by the Gram Panchayat or any other respondent, but mr. Jain appearing on behalf of the Gram Panchayat has supported the judgment of the two courts below and submitted that the judgments do not suffer from any infirmity and hence they cannot be quashed by issuing a writ of certiorari. He also contended that the petitioner never took this objection either before the Debt relief Court or before the learned District Judge. Jodhpur. that the provisions of the Act were not applicable to the debts due to the local body like the Gram panchayat and, therefore, the petitioner should not be allowed to raise that objection for the first time before this Court in its extraordinary jurisdiction. It is also contended that Section 4 (j) of the Act has been declared ultra vires Article 14 of the Constitution and on that parity of reasoning clause (k) of Section 4 is also violative of Article 14 and hence on that ground no relief can be granted to the petitioner in this writ petition.