( 1 ) IN this Rule, the principle question is whether the disputed Beel is a "tank fishery" or not.

( 2 ) THE Beel had been recorded as Plot No. 3379 of Mouza Goas, within P. S. Karimpur, in the district of Nadia measuring 58. 19 acres in the names of one Indumati Debi, Narendra Nath Chandra and Subhash Kumar Mullick as occupancy raiyats. By a sale deed dated July 21, 1954, registered on September 27, 1954, the said persons transferred their interests in the said Beel to the petitioner, Sm. Shanti Debi. It is the case of the petitioner that ever since the aforesaid transfer, the petitioner has been in exclusive possession thereof by rearing and catching fish and selling them in the market to the knowledge of the Government.

( 3 ) SOMETIME in may, 1970, a proceeding under Section 5a of the West Bengal Estates Acquisition Act, 1953, hereinafter referred to as the Act, was started against the petitioner and her vendors in respect of the transfer of the said Beel.

( 4 ) THE Assistant Settlement Officer, who initiated the proceeding under Section 5a of the Act, Overruled the contention of the petitioner that the Beel was aa "tank fishery" and, as such not hit by the p