JUDGMENT

1. These two analogous appeals arise from a land ceiling proceeding that was reopened under Section 45-B of the Bihar Land Reforms (Fixation of Ceiling Area and Acquisition of Surplus Land) Act, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as `the Act').

2. In the first round a proceeding was held against the land-holder Sarju Madhav Rastogi in Case No. 868 of 1973-74. In that proceeding he was shown entitled to only two ceiling units but having 205.83 acres of different classes of land in his possession. The land holder raised many objections against the draft statement. He disputed the classification of lands and claimed three more units for his three sons who, according to him, were already major on the appointed date, 9 September, 1970 and further claimed an additional unit for his two minor grand-sons. He stated that by gift deeds dated 28 September, 1962 he had given 21.98 acres and 21.43 acres respectively to his two married daughters: 2.56 acres were taken in acquisition by the State Government for construction of an irrigation canal and 9.69 acres was voluntarily surrendered by him. He contended that all these lands (adding to a total of 55.56 acres) were wrongly shown in the draft statement made in his name. The revenue authorities disallowed his objections and the matter finally came to the Patna High Court in two writ petitions, C.W.J.C.No.1393 of 1977 (filed by Sarju Madhav Rastogi and his sons) and C.W.J.C.No.1816 of 1977 (filed by the two daughters who claimed the lands gifted by their father and objected to their inclusion in the land ceiling proceeding against their father). The two writ petitions were allowed by judgment and order dated 7 November, 1977 and the matter was remitted to the Sub-Divisional Officer, Bhabua, for reconsideration of the matter and to re-examine the land-holder's objections in light of the observations made by the court. In the fresh round following the remand by the High Court practically all the objections raised by the land-holder were accepted and the proceeding was dropped by order dated 25 October, 1978 passed by the Additional Collector, L.R., Rohtas, Sasaram. The order held and found that the land-holder possessed 8 acres of class II and 132.01 = acres of class IV lands; he was held entitled to five units that added up to 156 acres and thus there was no surplus land in his hands.

3. The matter rested thus when the Collector, Rohtas passed an order on 8 September, 1982 reopening the proceeding in exercise of the powers under Section 45-B of the Act. (Under Section 45-B, as it stood at that time, the Collector of the district was equally empowered to reopen a proceeding on going through the records of the case). It is, however, the admitted position that the order to reopen the proceeding was passed by the Collector without giving any notice or an opportunity of hearing to the land-holder, Sarju Madhav Rastogi.

4. After being reopened the proceeding was renumbered as Land Ceiling Case No. 64 of 1982. A fresh draft statement under Section 10(2) of the Act was issued to the land-holder in which he was shown to hold 200.51 acres of class I land and 0.11 acre of class IV land. In the draft statement he was allowed four units and two additional units for the minors and the rest of the land was declared surplus.

5. What happened from this stage is important for the purpose of the case and we accordingly state the facts exactly as they appear in the order of the High Court coming under appeal. The proceeding was transferred before the Additional Collector for disposal. On a notice issued to him the land-holder, Sarju Madhav Rastogi appeared before the additional Collector on 30 April, 1984 and filed a petition praying for time to file objections. Thereafter, he neither filed any objection nor ever appeared before the court till his death on 27 January, 1985. It is undeniable that after the death of the land-holder no steps were taken for substitution of his heirs in the proceeding nor any not