A deity, being a juridical person and a 'raiyat' within the meaning of S. 2(10) of the West Bengal Land Reforms Act, is entitled to retain debuttar lands in accordance with S. 14M(1)(e) of the Act, which provides for a ceiling area of 7 standard hectares for any other raiyat.

In this Rule the petitioner has challenged the adjudication made under S. 14T of the West Bengal Land Reforms Act in case No. 95. The said adjudication is Annexure 'B' to the writ petition. It appears that previously an adjudication under S. 14T was made in Case No. 29 of 1976 in respect of the lands belonging to Barindra Kumar Bera and the members of his family. The said Bera was allowed to retain 15.12 acres of land and 17.73 acres of land were directed to be vested in the proceeding. Thereafter, the instant case No. 95 of 1976 under S. 14T was initiated in respect of land belonging to the Deity Sti Sri Iswar Saradiya Durga Thakurani. It appears that at the present moment Shri Barindra Kumar Bera is the Shebait of the said Deity. It appears from the adjudication made in the instant case that the Revenue Officer caused a local enquiry and came to the finding that one Sukchand Bera executed a Registered Deed of Arpannama in favour of the said Deity whereby he dedicated 20.91 acres of lands to the said Deity Sri Sri Iswar Saradiya Durga, Thakurani. It also appears that initially the said Sukchand Bera appointed himself as a Shebait. It was provided for in the Deed of Arpannama that after the death of the said Sukchand Bera, the said Barindra Nath Bera would be the shebait and the said Barindra Kumar Bera would have the liberty to appoint any person of his choice as the next shebait and if the said Barindra Kumar Bera would fail to make any such choice then one of his competent sons would become shebait after the death of Barindra Kumar Bera. The Revenue Officer also came to the finding that usufructs of the property was meant for religious purposes but the usufructs were not utilised for charitable purpose and the public was not interested in the management of the debuttar property and/or the daily worship of the Deity but they were allowed for Debidarshan and Prasad Grahan in the annual ceremony. It was also held by the Revenue Officer that there was no provision for managing the property or spending the usufructs of the property by any other members other than the agents of the settler. In that view of the matter the Revenue Officer allowed the said Barindra Nath Bera to retain 2.18 acres of land out of the Debuttar properties and directed for vesting of the remaining lands. The said Deity being represented by the Shebait has challenged the adjudication in the instant writ proceeding.

2. It is the case of the petitioner deity that the Revenue Officer was not justified in holding that Barindra Kumar Bera was bound to keep the property within his family because it is quite evident from the recital of the Deed as quoted hereinbefore that he could select any person of his choice as the next shebait. It is also contended that by the aforesaid Deed of Arpannama, the property had vested in the Deity and the Deity had become the sole owner of the property. It is also contended that the Deity is entitled to retain land independently. A raiyat under S. 2(10) of the West Bengal Land Reforms Act means "a person or institution holding land for purpose of agriculture". It is therefore, quite evident that the Deity being a juridical and/or artificial person is a raiyat within the meaning of S. 2(10) of the Land Reforms Act. If a reference is made to clauses (a), (b), (c) and (d) of sub s. (1) of S. 14-M of the West Bengal Land Reforms Act it will appear that the ceiling area in the case of a raiyat, who is an adult unmarried person will be 2.50 standard hectares. In case of a raiyat, who is the sole surviving member of a family the ceiling area will be 2.50 standard hectares and in the case of a raiyat having a family consisting of two or more, but not more than five members, the ceiling area will be 5.00 standard hectares and in the case of a raiyat having a family consisting of more than five members, 500 standard hectares, plus 0.500 standard hectare, for each member in excess of five, so, however, that the aggregate of the ceili