A statutory tenancy of a land owned by a public trust is heritable under the Vidarbha Act.

JUDGMENT - MOHTA V.A., J.:—The following question needs to be answered in this reference.

"Whether a statutory tenancy of a land owned by a public trust is heritable under the Bombay Tenancy and Agricultural Lands (Vidarbha Region) Act, 1958 (the Vidarbha Act)?"

2. In a large part of the State, land tenancies were governed by the Bombay Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act, 1948 (the Bombay Act). In Vidarbha, they were governed by different enactments. The Vidarbha Act was enacted in the year 1958, as the preamble itself indicates, "with a view to bringing the status and rights of tenants as far as possible in line with those prevailing in certain other parts of the State". In the instant matter we are chiefly concerned with sections 54 and 129 of the Vidarbha Act, which we reproduce for ready reference:

"54. (1) Where a tenant dies, the landlords shall be deemed to have continued the tenancy

(a) if such tenant was member of an undivided Hindu family to the surviving member of the said family, and

(b) if such tenant was not a member of an undivided Hindu family, to his heirs, on the same terms and conditions on which such tenant was holding at the time of his death.

(2) Where the tenancy is inherited by heirs other than the widow of the deceased tenant, such widow shall have a charge for maintenance on the profit of such land.

(3) The interest of an occupancy tenant in his holding shall on his death pass by inheritance or survivorship in accordance with his person law."

"129. Nothing in the foregoing provisions except section 2, the provision of Chapter II (excluding sections 21, 22, 23, 24 and 37) and section 91 and the provisions of Chapters X and XII in so far as the provisions of the said Chapters are applicable to any of the matters referred to in sections mentioned above shall apply-

(a) to lands held or leased by a local authority, or university established by law in the State.

(b) to lands which are the property of a trust for an educational purpose, hospital, Panjarapole, Gaushala, or an institution for public religious worship, provided the entire income of such lands is appropriated for the purposes of such trust; and

(c) to lands assigned or donated by any person before the commencement of this Act for the purpose of rendering any of the following services useful to the community, namely :-

maintenance of water works, lighting or filling of water troughs for cattle;

(d) to any land taken under management by a civil, revenue or Criminal Court :

Provided that, from the date on which the land referred to in Clause (d) is released from such management, all the provisions of this Act shall apply thereto, but subject to the following modifications, that is to say,

(i) in the application of section 38 to such land, for the time mentioned in sub-section (1) thereof for giving notice to the tenant and making an application for possession, there shall be substituted a period of one year from the date of the release of land from such management, and the said section shall not apply so as to entitle a landlord to terminate a tenancy of a tenant (or his successor-in-title) in respect of whom he had an opportunity to terminate under section 38;

(ii) if on the date on which the land was taken under management, the landlord was personally cultivating the land then on the release of the land from management the tenancy of any person subsisting at the date of the release shall be deemed to be terminated, and the land shall be restored to the possession of the landlord;

(iii) the right of the tenant to purchase the land under the relevant provisions relating thereto shall be exercised within one year from the expiry of the period during which the landlord is entitled to terminate the tenancy as provided in Clause (i).

Explanation.—For the purpose of Clause (b), a certificate granted by the Collector after holding an inquiry, that the conditions mentioned in the said clause are satisfied by the trust shall be the conclusive evidence in that behalf."

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