Judgment

GAJENDRAGADKAR, J. : The petitioner Raja Jagannath Baksh Singh was a Taluqdar of Rehwan Estate in District Rai Bareli, Under the U. P. Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act (U. P. Act I of 1951), the petitioner s Zamindari property vested in the State Government, and the groves and other agricultural land were left with the petitioner as a Bhumidar under the said Act. In 1957, the U. P, Legislature passed the U. P. Large Land Holdings Tax Act (No. XXXI of 1957) (hereinafter called the Act) and under Section 7(2) of the Act the petitioner was served with a notice along with a provisional assessment of the annual value of the land in his possession for the year 1365 fasli. Similar notices were served on the petitioner subsequently for the years 1366 and 1367 fasli. In response to the said notices, the petitioner filed his returns and objected to the annual value of the land calculated by the assessing authority. After the petitioner received notices for the years 1365 and 1366 fasli, he filed a writ petition in the Allahabad High Court challenging the validity, of the said notices on the ground that the material provisions of the Act on which the said notices were based we