Judgement

DWIVEDI, J. :- The appellant, the Agricultural & Industrial Syndicate Ltd., is the tenure-holder of a large area of land in two villages in the district of Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh; Aithal Buzurg and Bukkanpur. Some of its land have been declared as surplus land under the U.P. Imposition of Ceiling on Land Holding Act (hereinafter referred to as the Ceiling Act). It went in appeal against the order declaring surplus land to the district Judge, but without success. Its writ petition has been partly allowed and partly dismissed by the Allahabad High Court. This appeal, by special leave, is directed against the latter part of the order of the High Court.

2. The scheme of the Ceiling Act is to allow a tenure-holder to retain such of his plots as are assigned to him as his ceiling area and to acquire the remaining plots as surplus land. The celling area and the surplus had are determined by the Prescribed Authority appointed under the Ceiling Act. The Prescribed Authority issues a general notice calling upon all the tenure-holders of a village to file a statement in respect of their holdings. Under Section 9 a tenure-holder filed his statement in respect of all his holdings as well as indicate the plot or plots which he would like to retain as his ceiling area. Where a tenure-holder fails to file a statement or submits an incomplete or incorrect statement under S. 9, Section 10 enables the Prescribed Authority to prepare a statement in regard to his holding and serve it on him. As the appellant did not file a statement under S. 9. a Statement prepared under S. 10 was served on it. An objection was filed by it. The objection indicated the plots which it wanted to retain as its ceiling area. The Prescribed Authority did not accept its choice wholly. After the decision of the Prescribed Authority, it received C.H. Form V issued under the provisions of the U. P. Consolidation of Holdings Act (hereinafter to be referred as the Consolidation Act) with respect to the land situated in village Bukkanpur. A review application was then moved before the Prescribed Authority on the ground of the pendency of consolidation operations in village Bukkanpur. The application was rejected on September 15, 1962. While the appeal against the order of the Prescribed Authority was pending, village Aithal Buzurg was also brought under consolidation operations. The appellant received C.H. Form V. issued under the Consolidation Act with respect to the plots situate in village Aithal Buzurg. It made an application to the appellate authority informing him of the initiation of consolidation operations in the two villages. It is said that the appellate authority took no notice of the application and decided the appeal on merits. The appellate authority also did not accept wholly the choice of the appellant in regard to the plots to be retained as its ceiling area. In the writ petition before the High Court, the appellant pressed two points for consideration. First, the Prescribed Authority and the appellate authority should have accepted entirely the choice of the plots which it wanted to retain as the ceiling area; second, the two authorities should have stayed the proceedings under the Ceiling Act during consolidation operations in the said villages. The first contention was accepted by the High Court; the second was rejected. The High Court quashed the order of the appellate authority and directed it to decide the appeal in the light of its judgment. The High Court also directed that the proceedings before the consolidation authorities would remain stayed until the appeal was decided by the appellate authority under the Ceiling Act. This appeal is confined to the second point.

3. The High Court has rejected the second argument for two reasons; One, there was no merit in the argument; second, the appellant had not raised the argument before the Prescribed Authority and the appellate authority.

4. It now transpires that while the petition was pending