LADHU RAM Vs. SHEOKARAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) SHRI Ujjwal and SHRI Madhok This reference has been made to this larger Bench by a Division Bench of this Board by its order dated 20. 6. 1963. It arises from an order passed by the Deputy Commissioner Colonisation, whereby the opposite party were allowed exchange of land in the Bhakra Colony area in lieu of some other land. The applicant has been contesting the validity of this exchange. At one time he had preferred an appeal in this Board which was returned as being incompetent. The applicant subsequently sought a revision of the order of the Deputy Commissioner by the State Government in the Revenue Department under sec. 83 of the Rajasthan Land Revenue Act 1956. This provision of the law is reproduced below - "83. Power of State Government to call for records and revise orders. The State Government may call for the record of any non-judicial proceeding not connected with settlement held by any officer subordinate to it, and may pass thereon such orders as it thinks fit. " The State Government did not decide this case but sent it on to this Board along with 62 other cases of a like nature, in terms of the following notification - ''government of Rajasthan Irrigation Department Notification No. F. 7 (164)Irg/62, dated Jaipur the 19th April, 1963. In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-sec. (2) of sec. 8 read with clause (a) of sec. 260 of the Rajasthan Land Revenue Act, 1956 (Rajasthan Act 15 of 1956), the State Government hereby transfers the cases specified in the Schedule appended hereto, relating to Bhakra Project filed under sec. 83 of the said Act to the Board of Revenue.

(2.) A question was raised before the Division Bench whether the aforesaid notification validly conferred jurisdiction on this Board to exercise the powers of the Land Revenue Act. The Division Bench accordingly framed the following two questions for pronouncement by a larger Bench. (1) whether the aforesaid notification of 19. 4. 1963 confers jursidiction on the Board of Revenue to hear this revision petition, and (2) if the reply is in the affirmative as regards (1) above, whether the revision will be heard by the Board of Revenue under sec. 83 or under sec. 84 of the Rajasthan Land Revenue Act.