The period of limitation for an application by a contiguous tenant under section 8 of the West Bengal Land Reforms Act 1955 is four months from the date of transfer.

Mukherjee J.

On June 7, 1966 one Kalidasi Devi executed a sale deed in respect of 25 decimals of land in Dag No. 610 and 47 decimals of land in Dag No. 611 comprised in Khatian No. 62, Mouza Kashimpur in favour of the present petitioner for a consideration of Rs. 1000/-. On the following date, that is, June 8, 1966, the said Deed was registered in the office of the Sub-Registrar, Kalna. On April 6, 1967 the present opposite party No. 1, Gopal Chandra Chakravorti, claiming to be the owner of adjoining plots, filed an application under section 8 of the West Bengal Land Reforms Act 1955 before the Sub-Divisional Land Reforms Officer, Kalna for an order of pre-emption. The present petitioner contested the said case.

2. The Sub-Divisional Land Refroms Officer by his order dated April 21, 1970 allowed the said application under section 8 and made an order for pre-emption in favour of the opposite party No.1. The learned District Judge, Burdwan, dismissed the appeal preferred by the present petitioner against the said order of the Sub-Divisional Officer, Kalna, and affirmed the order- for pre-emption made in favour of the opposite party No. 1.

3. Mr. Habibullah, learned Advocate for the petitioners has made two-fold submissions before us. The first submission of Mr. Habibullah was that the bolding in question did not comprise of agricultural lands and, at least, partly it was non-agricultural in character. We are unable to accept this submission made on behalf of the petitioners. In this case the transfer in question and also the application for pre-emption ware made before the enactment of the West Bengal Land Reforms Amendment Act, 1972 Mr. Habibullah did not argue that the definition of the expression, 'Land', in section 2 (7) of the Act as amended by the above West Bengal Act 12 of 1972 would be applicable. Both the Sub-Divisional Land Reforms Officer as also the learned District Judge held that holding to be agricultural in nature. Therefore, We are unable to take any other view with regard to the nature and character of the land involved in the present proceeding, Thus, the first submission made on behalf of the petitioners fails.

4. The second sub-mission made on behalf of the petitioners was that the instant application under section 8 of the West Bengal Land Reforms Act having been filed more than four months after the date of the transfer in question the said application under section 8 of the Act was barred by limitation. Haying given our anxious considerations to the matter we are of the view that this contention of the petitioners should be upheld. Section 8 of the Land Reforms Act confers the right of pre-emption upon two classes of persons, namely, co-sharers and contiguous tenants. In the instant case, we are not concerned with the right of purchase of a co-sharer in the event of a portion or share of a holding of a raiyat is transferred to any person other than a co-sharer in the holding. Accordingly, it is unnecessary for our purpose to consider the period of limitation, if any, in case of a co-sharer tenant who is not notified of such transfer in terms of sub-section (5) of section 5 of the West Bengal Land Reforms Act. For the same reason, we refrain from expressing any opinion as whether in the event of such a non-notified co-sharer the provisions of Article 137 of the Limitation Act 1963 would be applicable or not. In the case of a contiguous tenant, section 8 expressly provides that he may exercise his right to purchase under section 8 within four months from the date of transfer of a portion or of a share of a holding of a raiyat to any person other than a co-sharer in the holding. Thus section 8 itself clearly specifies that the commencement of the period of limitation for making an application by in adjoining owner would be the date of the transfer and the other termini of the said period would be expiry of four months from the date of such transfer. Unlike the other class of persons eligible to exerci