BIRENDRA PRASAD SINHA, J.

The petitioner purchased 42 decimals of land appertaining to plot No. 1244, khata No. 666 situate in village Ratangarh, police Station Sahar in the district of Bhojpur from respondent No.3 Keshavendra Pratap Singh Respondent. No.2. Dulhin Basamatia alias Basmato Devi filed an application under section 16(3) of the Bihar Land Reform (Fixation of Ceiling Area and Aquisition of Surplus Land) Act, 1961 (hereinafter called the, Ceiling Act) before the Deputy Collector, Land Reforms claiming to be an adjoining Raiyat The Deputy Collector. Land Reforms allowed the application on 30.10.1978 (vide Annexure 1). The appeal filed by the petitioner was dismissed on 20.11.1978 by the Collector (vide Annexure 2). The petitioner's revision Application before the Board of Revenue also failed (vide Annexure 3). The petitioner has, therefore, challenged the three orders contained in Annexure 1, 2 and 3 and has prayed that they should be quashed.

2. The petitioner has claimed that he is a Sikmidar of plot No. 1244 and adjoining plot No. 1243 and has been continuing in actual physical cultivating possession of these plots. Apart from this the petitioner claimed to have constructed it house over the disputed plot which was adjacent to his ancestral house. It was submitted on behalf of the petitioner that since) he was an under-raiyat of the plot in question being a Sikmidar he had acquired all the rights and privileges of a raiyat and, therefore, the application for preemption against him was misconceived and not maintainable. The other ground on which this application is founded is that the vendor respondent No. 3 was not impeded as a party by the pre-emptor respondent No.2, before the Deputy Collector, Land Reforms. His application, therefore, was not maintainable at all.

3. The Ceiling Act, provides for fixation of ceiling, restriction on sub letting and resumption by certain raiyats for personal cultivation of land acquisition of status of raiyat by certain under-raiyats, and acquisition of surplus land by the state and matters connected therewith Section 16 or the Ceiling Act, puts certain restrictions on future acquisition by transfer Sub-section (3) of section 16 confers certain preferential rights on a co-shares or an adjoining raiyat and it reads as under :

"When any transfer of land is made after the commencement of this Act, to any person other than a co-sharer or a raiyat of adjoining land, any co-sharer of the transferor or any raiyat bolding land adjoining the land transferred shall be entitled, within three months of the date of registration of the document of the transfer, to make an application before, the Collector in the prescribed manner for the transfer of the land to him on the terms and conditions contained in the said deed:

Provided that no such application shall be entertained by the Collector unless the purchase money together with a sum equal to ten percent thereof is deposited in the prescribed manner within the said period."

The question for consideration is whether the word "raiyat" used in section 16(3) in clouds an under-raiyat also and whether an adjoining under-raiyat or an under-raiyat of the vended property is also entitled to the preferential right conferred on a co-sharer or a raiyat ? It was contended that law does not make a distinction between a raiyat and an under-raiyat is this regard inasmuch as the dominant object of the Act, is to discourage fragmentation of holdings and to encourage productivity.

4. According to Bihar Tenancy Act, there are several classes of tenants such as tenure holders, including under-tenure holders, (1) raiyats, and (3) under-raiyats, that is to say tenants holding, whether immediately or immediately, under-raiyats. There are three types of raiyats, namely, (a) raiyats holding at fixed rates, which expression mean, raiyats holding either at a rent fixed in perpetuity or at a rate of rent fixed in perpetuity; (b) occupancy raiyats that is to say raiyats,