LALA ATMA RAM Vs. THAKUR SADHU SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) On 12 May 1931, two brothers, Agar Singh and Nandlal Singh, who were proprietors of a one third share in the village Bajika, situated in Tahsil Sirsa of the Hissar district, entered into an agreement with the appellant, Rai Sahib Lala Atmaram, to sell the whole of their estate in that village to him for Rs. 52,000. In the deed of agreement they set out the reasons for selling the land in these terms : We are unable to manage the cultivation work of the estate. Besides we owe debts, interest whereupon is swelling day by day. The revenue of the estate is also due from us. There is no other alternative but to sell the estate for payment of the debts and the revenue.

(2.) As they were members of an agricultural tribe notified under a special statute called the Punjab Alienation of Land Act, 13 of 1900, and the proposed vendee, Rai Sahib Lala Atma Ram, was not a member of an agricultural tribe, they could not sell the land to him without obtaining the sanction of the Deputy Commissioner of the district to the sale. They accordingly recited in the agreement that they had applied to the Deputy Commissioner for permission to sell the land, and that after obtaining the required sanction they would execute a sale deed in favour of the vendee.

(3.) Sub-section (3) of S. 3 of the Statute imposes upon the Deputy Commissioner, dealing with such an application for sanction to sell land, the duty of making an enquiry into the circumstances of the proposed alienation ; and it was only after considering the result of the enquiry required under the law that the Deputy Commissioner made an order on 1st September 1931, sanctioning the sale. After obtaining the requisite sanction, both the brothers jointly executed in favour of Rai Sahib Lala Atma Ram, on 22 September, 1931, a deed of sale in respect of the land, and received Rs. 48,812-10-9, in the presence of the Sub- Registrar who registered the deed, and also admitted to have received the balance of the price as set out in the document. The balance, which amounted to only Rs. 3187-5-3, included Rs. 800 received by them as earnest money, and Rs. 1500 deposited with the vendee for the redemption of a part of the land from a mortgagee, and about Rs. 800 for payment by him to Government on account of the arrears of land revenue and water rate due from them.