Judgment

SARKAR, J. : (for self, S. K Das and Raghubar Dayal, JJ.)- This petition under Art. 32 of the Constitution asks for a writ quashing an order purported to have been made under S. 42 of the East Punjab Holdings (Consolidation and Prevention of Fragmentation) Act, 1948. It is said that the order was entirely without jurisdiction and if allowed to stand, it would deprive the petitioner of certain lands and so wrongfully affect his fundamental rights under Part III of the Constitution.

2. The question raised by this petition depends on a construction of certain provisions of the Act winch we shall later quote. A general idea of some of the purposes and provisions of the Act will however be useful for deciding that question and may be given now.

3. Shortly put, one of the objects of the Act appears to be to pool together the entire lands held by different persons in a village and redistribute the same among them on a more utilitarian basis in accordance with a scheme learned for the purpose. The final result that the Act achieves is that instead of his original holding a person is given some other holding Section 14 gives the State Government the power to declare by notification it