GATTANI, J.—These are certain Khasras of agricultural land measuring in all 4 Bighas and 13 Biswas in village Chharsa. Half of this land belongs to Amarnath respondent 4 and the other half belongs to Mahadevnath, Balunath and Narain Nath respondents Nos. 1 to 3 respectively. Respondents No 2 and 3 sold their share of land in favour of defendant petitioner Prabhu Dayal by means of registered sale-deed dated 24-9-69. This led to the filing of the suit by respondent No. 1 Mahadevnath upon the basis of right of preemption. Defendant Prabhudayal in his written statement inter alia pleaded that the sale being in respect of Khatedari right only, the suit was not maintainable as according to him provisions of Rajasthan Act, 1966 (hereinafter referred to as the Act) are not applicable to agricultural lands. The lower court in this respect framed issue No. 6 as under :

"6 Is the present suit not maintainable?" It found favour with the plaintiff while deciding this issue on 25.5.70. Hence this revision.

2. The only point involved in this revision is whether what has been sold to the petitioner is pre-emptible.

3. The contention of the learned counsel for petitioner is as follows :

The ownership in respect of agricultural land rests in the State. What has been sold to the petitioner is the Khatedari rights of vendors in the disputed agricultural land. This transaction has not transferred the ownership of land in favour of Prabhudayal and as such when the transfer falls short of the transfer of ownership the question of right of pre-emption does not arise. He has not been able to cite any direct authority on this point but has relied upon certain authorities which shall be referred to as and when the occasion arises.

4. In order to appreciate the point involved it will be better to look into the relevant provisions of the Act. Sec. 3 of the Act defines what is the right of preemption, Sec. 4 lays down cases in which the right of pre-emption accrues while sec. 5 of the Act gives the cases in which this right does not accrue. These sections read as follows :

"Sec. 3.—Right of pre-emption defined:—The right of pre-emption is the right accruing under sec. 4 of this Act, upon a transfer of any immovable property, to acquire such property and to be substituted as the transferee thereof in place of and in preference to the original transferee and pre-emptor means a person having a right of pre emption."

"Sec. 4,—Cases in which right of pre-emption accrues—Subject to the provisions contained in sec. 5, the right of pre-emption shall, upon the transfer of any immovable property, accrue to the persons mentioned in sec. 6."

"Sec. 5.—Cases in which right of pre-emption does not accrue :

(1) The right of pre-emption shall not accrue—

(a) upon the transfer of a shop, katra, sarai, musafir-khana, dharamshala, temple, mosque or other similar buildings; or

(b) upon a sale—

(i) by or to the Central or State Government, or

(ii) by or to any local authority, or

(iii) to any company under the provisions of part VII of the Rajasthan Land Acquisition Act, 1953 (Rajasthan Act 24 of 1953), or

(iv) for the purpose of a manufacturing industry; or

(c) on a transfer to any of the persons mentioned in sec. 6, to any person who has an equal or inferior right of pre-emption; or

(d) in the case of transfer by joint owners, to a party to such transfer; or

(e) in respect of—

(i) any sale in execution of a decree of a civil or revenue court, or

(ii) any sale in default of payment of land revenue or of any sum legally recoverable as an arrear of land revenue :

Provided that, in the case contemplated by sub-clause (iv) of clause (b) the right of pre-emption shall accrue, subject to the other provisions of this Act, on the expiry of one year from the date of the registration of the sale deed, in case such sale is made without a registered deed from the date of taking physical possession of the immovable property sold if such property has not been used in good faith for the purpose for which it was

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