The liability to pay compensation for land acquired in West Bengal after the partition of Bengal was that of the State of West Bengal, as the land was located in West Bengal and the acquisition was for the purpose of West Bengal.

K. C. CHUNDER, J. :- These four revision cases arise out of the Land Acquisition proceedings in Mouza Hirapur within the sub-division of Asansol in the district of Burdwan. Notification for acquisition of land was issued on 29th April 1940. The Land Acquisition Collector gave his award on 10th February 1945 and on 1st April 1945, the Province of Bengal took possession. Then on the application of the petitioners before us the Collector made a reference under S. 18 to the District Judge of Burdwan on the question of valuation of the land, and this gave rise to Land Acquisition case No. 9 of 1946. On 15th August 1947 the Indian Independence Act came into force and from that day the Province of Bengal was divided into two provinces of West and East Bengal. On 13th August 1949 the province of West Bengal now represented by the State of West Bengal objected before the District Judge of Burdwan that in view of the Indian Independence Order Eights of Properties, etc., of 1947 the liability now was that of the province of East Bengal or the Eastern Pakistan and the Province of West Bengal was no longer liable to pay the compensation which may be determined for the land. By his order dated 21st November 1949 the District Judge gave effect to this contention and held that the liability was that of the province of East Bengal and not of West Bengal. The present Rules were issued on 22nd December 1949 and the new Constitution of the Republic of India came into force from 26th January 1950. The only question which arises in all these Rules is whether the liability to pay any additional compensation for the value of the land which may be determined by the District Judge was that of the West or of the East Bengal Government. Ordinarily as the land is within West Bengal and the acquisition has been wholly for the purpose of West Bengal the liability would be of that Government to pay adequate compensation as determined by the District Judge to the parties whose lands were acquired, Mr. Chandra Sekhar Sen appearing on behalf of the State of Bengal has contended first that in view of S. 9, Indian Independence Order of 1947 these cases come within "other financial obligations" mentioned in this section and therefore the liability is that of the Province of East Bengal and not of West Bengal. On this point there is a decision of a Divisional Bench of this Court in the case of the Province of West Bengal v. Midnapore Zamindari Co. Ltd., (AIR (37) 1950 Cal 159), that the expression "and other financial obligations" as used in Article or para. 9, Indian Independence Order, 1947, must be given a restricted meaning and construed ejusdem generis with the words loan and guarantees used in that article. It appears that no reasons were given for this construction and it also further has been contended that this is merely an obiter dictum as it was not necessary to decide this point in that case. It was in connection with a legal proceeding respecting rent payable and the Divisional Bench pointed out that rent arose out of a contractual obligation and contractual obligation was dealt with in Article or Para. 8 and therefore under that Article the liability was that of the West Bengal Government. In view of that decision it was unnecessary really to decide about "other financial obligations".

2. Mr. Sens second contention is that even if it be held that Art. 9 did not apply and the liability was not of East Bengal under this Article, as no provision has been made as to which of the two successor Governments namely the East Bengal or West Bengal is to be substituted in place of the now non-existent province of Bengal, the province of West Bengal cannot be substituted in place of the previous province of Bengal and cannot be made liable. There is no question that under S. 4 of the Legal Proceedings Order the District Judges Court at Asansol is the proper Court in which the present proceedings are to continue. Mr. Sens contention is that Article or para