STATE OF RAJASTHAN Vs. RAM PRATAP & ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) State of Rajasthan has laid this writ petition under Articles 226 & 227 of the Constitution of India to assail impugned judgment and order dated 31st of Jan., 2015 (Annex. 5) passed by Board of Revenue Rajasthan, Ajmer (for short, 'BOR').

(2.) By the impugned verdict (Annex. 5), learned BOR accepted the appeal of the respondent-agriculturists under Section 23(2A) of the Rajasthan Imposition of Ceiling on Agricultural and Holdings Act, 1973 (for short, 'Act of 1973') and set aside order dated 28th of July, 2006 (Annex.4) passed by Additional District Collector (Vigilance), Sriganganagar, which entailed dropping the proceedings under the Act of 1973 against the respondents.

(3.) The facts apposite, for the purpose of this writ petition, as narrated therein, are that proceedings were initiated against agriculturist, Sahiram, under Rajasthan Tenancy Act, 1936 (Old Ceiling Law) and the authorised officer (Ceiling-cum-Sub Divisional Officer), Srikaranpur, District Sriganganagar, by its order dated 16th of May 1975, dropped the proceedings with a specific finding that agriculturist-assessee is not holding excess land. Subsequent to that, an endeavour was made by the State to evaluate the entire record and, by order dated 25th of Sept. 1978, ceiling proceedings were reopened by resorting to sub-section (2) of Section 15 of the Act of 1973. As a consequence of it, the Additional District Collector (Vigilance), Sriganganagar was directed to decide case of the agriculturist assessee afresh. This led to reopening of the case and consequently notices were issued to the agriculturist-assessee by the Additional District Collector. The Additional District Collector, after hearing both the parties and upon scanning the entire record, recorded its conclusion that assessee was not holding excess land on the cut off date and, with this affirmative finding, again dropped the proceedings against the agriculturist-assessee and order to this effect was passed on 20th of Jan. 1988 (Annex.2).