1. The respondents 8 and 9 executed a sale deed in favour, of the respondent No. 7 in respect to certain land attracting the provisions of S.16 (3) of the Bihar Land Reforms (Fixation of Ceiling Area and Acquisition of Surplus Land) Act, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as the Act) and the appellant and the respondents 5 and 6 filed two competing applications for pre-emption. The application of the respondents 5 and 6 was filed earlier, but the Land Reforms Deputy Collector (respondent No. 2) took cognizance of both the cases on the same day. The respondents 5 and 6 claimed preference on the ground that their application was filed before that of the appellant. The case of the appellant is that since his land adjoining the subject-matter of the sale deed is larger in area than the adjoining land of respondents 5 and 6, his application must succeed to the exclusion of the claim of respondents 5 and 6.

2. The appeal was heard by a Division Bench of Mr. Justice N.P. Singh and Mr. Justice A.P. Sinha. Mr. Justice N.P. Singh held that the applicant who approaches the authority first should be preferred. Mr. Justice A.P. Sinha took the view that the person having bigger adjoining land