A person with a dual capacity of owner and bargadar cannot be considered a proper representative of bargadars under the West Bengal Bargadars Act, 1950.

( 1 ) THIS is an application under Art. 226 of the Constitution for an appropriate writ or direction upon the opposite parties to show cause as to why the opposite parties Nos. 4 and 5 should not be called upon to exhibit the authority under which they purport to act as members of a Bhag Chas Conciliation Board constituted under the West Bengal Bargadars Act, 1950, and why they should not forbear from acting as such members and also for a direction upon opposite party no. 7 to cancel or withdraw the Notification, dated 18-1-1951, which constituted the Bhag Chas Conciliation Board in question.

( 2 ) THE petitioner claims to be a bargadar within the meaning of West Bengal Act 2 of 1950. It is alleged in the petition that on or about 15-3-1950, the West Bengal Bargadars Act came into force. Section 2 (b) of the said Act defines a bargadar as meaning a person who, under the system generally known as Adhi, Barga, or Bhag, cultivates the land of another persons on condition of delivering a share of the produce of such land to that other person, but shall not include any such person, if he has been expressly admitted to be a tenant by the owner in any document executed by him, or executed in his favour and accepted by him, or if he has been held by a Civil Court to be a tenant.

( 3 ) SECTION 2 (c) defines a Board as meaning a Bhag Chas Conciliation Board established under sub-section (1) of Section 6 and includes an officer authorised under the proviso to sub-section (4) of that section.

( 4 ) SECTION 6 of the Act provides:" (1) The State Government may, by notification, establish one or more Bhag Chas Conciliation Boards for any local area specified in the notification. (2) Every Board shall consist of a Chairman who shall be a person in the service of Government and four other members, two of whom shall be representatives of bargadars cultivating lands situated in the local area for which the Board has been established and the other two shall be representatives of owners of lands cultivated by such bargadars. ''

( 5 ) THE other sub-sections of Section 6 are not material for the purpose of this case.

( 6 ) IT appears that by Notification No. 14624l, published in the Calcutta Gazette, dated 18-1-1951, opposite party No. 7 purported to establish for the area specified in the said Notification a Bhag Chas Conciliation Board and appointed opposite parties Nos. 1 to 5 as members thereof under the said Act.

( 7 ) THE petitioner does not dispute the validity of the appointments of opposite parties Nos. 1, 2 and 3 as members of the Board, but he challenges the appointments of opposite parties Nos. 4 and S and contends that they are not properly in office as such members. It is stated by the learned Counsel for the petitioner that opposite parties Nos. 4 and S, who were purported to have been appointed as representatives of the bargadars are not bargadars within the meaning of the definition as given in the Act. It is pointed out that these persons are the owners of large tracts of land and that they have let out some portions of the land to bargadars to be cultivated by the latter on the barga system and that they are not looked upon by the bargadars of the village in respect of which the Bhag Chas Conciliation Board has been established as representatives of the bargadars. One Sannyasi Charan Das and one Sadhan Chandra Das, who are agriculturists residing in the same village, have affirmed affidavits in support of the petition and have stated that opposite parties Nos. 4 and 5 are not bargadars.

( 8 ) OPPOSITE party No. 1 has affirmed an affidavit. It is stated in the said affidavit that the deponent consulted his staff who work as Union Agricultural Assistants and that they and the Presidents of the respective Union Boards told him that opposite parties Nos. 4 and 5 were good and honest cultivators and fit persons to look after the interest of the bargadars and it was upon this information received that he suggested the na