The central legal point established in the judgment is the importance of considering the genuine case of the petitioners and the lack of evidence to indicate that the transaction was in contravention of the Act.

JUDGMENT

Ahsanuddin Amanullah, J. - Heard learned counsel for the petitioners and learned AC to GP 15 for the State.

2. Despite service of notice on respondents no. 5 to 10, nobody appeared on their behalf when the matter was taken up and heard.

3. The petitioners have moved the Court for the following reliefs:

"(A) The final publication under Section 15(1) of the Bihar Land Reforms (Fixation of Ceiling Area and Acquisition of Surplus Land) Act, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as the Act) with respect of the land of Rani Binda Devi in Land Ceiling Case No. 1854/1274/1973- 74 instituted against one Pradeep Chand Lal the grand son of the said Rani Binda Devi be quashed in part in which the land purchased by the ancestors of the petitioners measuring an area of 6.59 acres has been declared surplus land of the landholder Pradeep Chand Lal.

(B) The acquisition and distribution of the surplus land if any with respect to the aforesaid 6.59 acres of land be also quashed.

(C) It is further prayed that in any event the aforesaid 6.59 acres of land be ordered to be included in the lands retained by the landholders under the provision of Section 9(2) of the Act.

(D) It is also prayed that during pendency of the present writ application the distribution of the land purchased by the ancestors of the petitioners having an area of 6.59 acres be stayed.

(E) Any other relief/reliefs which this Hon'ble Court may deem fit and proper be also granted."

4. The brief facts of the case are as under:

5. The petitioners are the descendants of the purchasers of 6.59 acres of land through registered sale deed from the ancestors of respondents no. 5 to 10 in the year 1965. It appears that in the year 1973-74, a proceeding was started under the Bihar Land Ceiling Act, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as the 'Act') with regard to the vendors of the lands in question. In the same, the vendors i.e., the ancestors of respondents no. 5 to 10 did not disclose that 6.59 acres of the lands shown to belong to them had already been alienated by them in the year 1965. Accordingly, the ceiling proceedings were disposed off holding certain area of land to be in excess of permissible limit under the Act which, accordingly, stood acquired by the State of Bihar in which the present 6.59 acres of land of the petitioners were included. The petitioners/their ancestors not having been noticed filed an application before the Collector, Purnea which was rejected. As the application filed by the ancestors of the petitioners under Section 45 B was not being disposed off, they moved this Court in CWJC No. 9334 of 1988, in which by order dated 02.01.1989, the Collector, Purnea was directed to dispose off the application pertaining to subject matter of Miscellaneous Ceiling Petition No. 562 of 1985-86 and until then, the authoriites were restrained from distributing the lands claimed by the petitioners. It appears that in terms thereof, the Anchal Adhikari, Thakurganj under letter no. 1670 dated 28.07.1990 submitted a report to the Additional Collector, Incharge District Legal Cell, Kishanganj, in view of a new district Kishanganj having been carved out of Purnea by then, in which it has been stated that the petitioners were in possession of the lands in question, which was bought by their ancestors by registered sale deed dated 09.01.1965 and in their favour Jamabandi was also created and they had paid rent from 1964-65 to 1980-81. It was further indicated that on the lands, there was orchard of trees of various varieties. However, the Collector, Kishanganj by order dated 15.04.2015 passed in Ceiling Case No. 35/1990-91 (562/86) under Section 45 B of the Act, having discussed the entire issue, remanded the matter to the Sub- Divisional Officer, Kishanganj to conduct a fresh enquiry, especially in view of the provisions of Section 5 (1) (iii) of the Act. Being aggrieved, the petitioners moved the Bihar Land Tribunal, Patna in BLT Case No. 677 of 2015, which was disposed off by order dated