1. Heard learned counsel for the petitioner and learned counsel for the State.

2. Petitioner is aggrieved by order of the Collector under the Act dated 31.12.2001 as contained in annexure-4 by which petitioners objection to the maintability of proceeding u/s 38 of the Bihar Land Reforms (Fixation of Ceiling Area and Acquisition of Surplus Land) Act (hereinafter referred to as the Act) has been rejected.

3. On the behalf of the petitioner it has been submitted that since the case of the State appears to be that petitioner is holding excess land on account of death of his mother who was allotted one unit of land earlier, hence the Collector can proceed against the petitioner only u/s 18 of the Act and not u/s 38 as is sought to be done.

4. A perusal of the notice contained in annexure-2 shows that the proceeding has been initiated u/s 38 of the Act and petitioner chose not to file a show-cause on merits but through annexure-3 questioned the maintainability of the proceeding itself, by the impugned order the Collector held the proceeding to be maintainable and treated his petition regarding maintainability to be a show-cause on merits and rejected the same and directed him to