The amended provisions of the West Bengal Land Reforms Act, 1955 and West Bengal Land Reforms (Bargadars) Rules, 1956 authorize the officer deciding an application under section 18 (1) or 18 (2) to hold a spot enquiry.

( 1 ) THE petitioners in this application have preferred an appeal against the order passed by B. M. Mirtra J. on 5th March, 1999, in W. P. No. 1739 (W) of 1999, dismissing the writ application filed by the petitioners in which the order of the Appellate Authority confirming the order passed by the Block Land and Land Reforms Officer, Salboni, under section 18 (2) of the West Bengal Land Reforms Act, 1955, had been challenged.

( 2 ) THE case as made out in the writ petition is that the writ petitioners are the recorded owners of the plots of land described in paragraph 2 of the application under consideration and that the same are under their khas possession and personal cultivation as will appear from the R. S. Record-of Rights.

( 3 ) ACCORDING to the petitioners, the respondent Nos. 4 to 18 had illegally and wrongfully got the R. S. Record-of-Rights altered with the connivance of the Block Land and Land Reforms Officer, Salboni, and got their names recorded as bargadars of the lands in question.

( 4 ) IT is also the petitioner's case that on the application of the said respondents Nos. 4 to 18 the Bhagchas Officer on 19th Feruary, 1980 initiated Barga Cases Nos. 1113 of 1980 to 1129 of 1980 which were challenged by the petitioners in this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution. The said writ application was disposed of on 7th October, 1996, by a learned Judge of this Court, inter alia, with a direction upon the Block Land and Land Reforms Officer, Salboni, Midnapore, to complete the proceedings in accordance with law within the period stipulated in the said order.

( 5 ) THE Block Land and Land Reforms Officer, Salboni, commenced a proceeding under section 18 (1) of the West Bengal Land Reforms Act, 1955, and disposed of the same by his order dated 8th January, 1997. In deciding the matter, the Block Land and Land Reforms Officer, Salboni, conducted a spot enquiry and, thereafter, on the basis of the report of the Amin and the Revenue Inspector, he came to a finding that the respondents Nos. 4 to 18 are bargadars in respect of the land forming the subject mater of the proceedings.

( 6 ) THE petitioners preferred an appeal against the said order of the Block Land and Land Reforms Officer, Salboni, being Bhag Chas Appeal Case No. 1/sdl of 1997 and the same was disposed of by the Appellate Authority on 17th April, 1998, by confirming the order appealed against.

( 7 ) THE petitioners then moved the writ application, being W. P. No. 1739 (W) of 1999, against the order of the Block Land and Land Reforms Officer, Salboni, and that of the Appellate Authority, which was dismissed by the learned Single Judge on 5th March, 1999, on the ground that findings of fact could not be challenged in writ jurisdiction nor could a chapter which dealt with controversial facts be re-opened.

( 8 ) THE petitioners preferred an appeal against the order of the learned single Judge and the application under consideration has been filed in connection therewith.

( 9 ) APPEARING in support of the application for appropriate orders, Mr. Kishore Mukherjee contended that the learned single Judge had failed to appreciate the submission made on behalf of the petitioner that the proceedings under section 18 (1) of the West Bengal Land Reforms Act, 1955, stood vitiated by the fact that the Block Land and Land Reforms Officer, in his capacity as Bhag Chas Officer, conducted a spot enquiry which was beyond the jurisdiction vested in him under section 18 (1) of the Act.

( 10 ) IN support of his submission, Mr. Mukherjee referred to and relied upon a single Bench decision of this court in the case of Md. Saha Alam Fakir and Ors v The State of West Bengal and Ors. (1981 (1) CHN page 212) wherein it was observed following the principle that a Judge should not himself be a witness and judge to a cause, that an officer empowered under section 18 (1) of the West Bengal Land Reforms Act, 1955, had not been empowered to hold a spot enquiry and he