JUDGMENT :

Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya, J.

1. The starting point of the present narrative is an application by the writ petitioner Saregama India Limited (previously, the Gramophone Company Limited) under Section 4C of the West Bengal Land Reforms Act, 1955 (hereinafter referred to as “the 1955 Act”) for conversion of the subject plot for the purpose of residential and commercial user. The said application gave rise to Miscellaneous Case No.01 of 2020 before the First Authority, that is the Additional District Magistrate and District Land and Land Reforms Officer (DL & LRO), North 24 Parganas at Barasat, who, vide Order No.4 dated October 14, 2020, disallowed the said application for conversion on the ground that the writ petitioner is a lessee of the plot-in-question within the contemplation of Section 4B of the 1955 Act and is not entitled to seek such conversion, which right is available only to raiyats.

2. The brief backdrop of the case is that a total property comprised of 16.9 acres of land with structure, partially used as factory/workshop of the petitioner-company, was owned by the petitioner at the time when the West Bengal Estates Acquisition Act, 1953 (for short, “the 1953 Act”) came into operation. The said property comprised of two portions, one on each side of the Jessore Road near Kolkata – one measuring about 1.96 acres and the other about 14.33 acres.

3. Vide Order No.1536-L.Ref./5M-2/96 dated September 20, 1999 issued by the Land Reforms Department, Government of West Bengal, the State of West Bengal allowed the petitioner-company to retain the total area of 16.29 acres for factory purpose, subject to the condition that an area of 1.96 acres, as mentioned above, which was not used for the purpose of running a factory, should be brought to use for the said purpose within two years from the issuance of the order. In case of the failure on the part of the petitioner-company to do so, the order of retention was to be reviewed under the proviso to Section 6(3) of the 1953 Act for resumption.

4. Subsequently, upon the failure of the petitioner to use the said strip of 1.96 acres of land for factory purpose, the same was resumed by the State of West Bengal. Being aggrieved by the resumption/vesting, the petitioner-company filed OA No.299 of 2005, which was dismissed by the Land Reforms and Tenancy Tribunal vide its judgment dated February 18, 2013, holding that the resumption of land of 1.96 acres was valid.

5. The petitioner-company moved this Court against the same, giving rise to WPLRT No.67 of 2013, which was allowed by this Court vide order dated January 17, 2014.

6. However, the said 1.96 acres of land is not the subject-matter of the present dispute. The genesis of the present cause of action arose with an application being filed by the petitioner-company on April 30, 2019 for conversion of the nature and character of the plot of land comprised of 14.33 acres in total under Section 4C of the 1955 Act.

7. Since the said application was kept pending for a considerable period, the petitioner moved OA No.2202 of 2019 (LRTT), which was dispose of on July 13, 2020 by the Fourth Bench of the West Bengal Land Reforms and Tenancy Tribunal with a direction upon the DL & LRO to dispose of the said application within a period of three months from the date of communication of the order.

8. Accordingly, the DL & LRO passed an order dated October 14, 2020 rejecting the application for conversion. The said order was challenged under Section 54 of the 1955 Act before the Commissioner, Presidency Division, who, vide order dated March 28, 2022, affirmed the rejection of the conversion application on different grounds than that attributed by the DL & LRO. Whereas the DL & LRO had held that the petitioner- company was a lessee by operation of Section 4B of the 1955 Act, since the land was retained under Section 6(3), read with Section 6(1)(g) of the 1953 Act, the Commissioner was of the view that the assertion made by the writ petitioner reg