The court held that surplus land determination must consider previously acquired land and fragmented land rules, modifying the Board of Revenue's decision accordingly.

ORDER :

1. Heard learned counsel for both sides and carefully perused the record, which is available before this Court.

2. Instant civil writ petition was preferred by the original petitioner-Chatur Bhuj (who passed away during course of writ petition and his natural heirs have come on record), feeling aggrieved by the judgment dated 19.12.1988 passed by the Board of Revenue, Ajmer, declaring 5.09 standard acre land as surplus, liable to be acquired by the State Government.

3. The relevant facts, in nutshell, as culled out from the record are that:

(i) original petitioner-Chatur Bhuj and Shri Mangya were two brothers, who were holding agricultural land, measuring 225.1 bigha in their joint Khatedari, situated at Village Ganesh Khera, Tehsil Piplada, District Kota. Ceiling proceedings were initiated and as per old ceiling law and rules, no surplus land was found in their Khatedari and possession, as such the ceiling proceedings were dropped vide order dated 25.04.1975. However, on promulgation of the new Act i.e. Rajasthan Imposition of Ceiling on Agricultural Holding Act, 1973, in the light of Section 15(2), the ceiling proceedings were again ordered to be reopened by the Deputy Secretary Revenue (Ceiling) vide order dated 25.06.1981.

(ii) In pursuance of the order dated 25.06.1981, Additional Collector (Ceiling), Kota, vide judgment dated 20.09.1985, held that the land is of Chambal Command Area and calculated the standard acre of 225.1 bigha land as 122.42 standard acre land.

(iii) Both the Khatedars were found to be held entitled for 30 standard acre land for each, taking into consideration the members of their family, hence, allowed the khatedars to retain 60 standard acre, remaining 62.42 acre land was declared as surplus and liable to be acquired by the State Government.

(iv) Both Khatedars preferred a joint appeal against the order dated 20.09.1985 before the Board of Revenue. In the appeal, Board of Revenue examined the matter on merits and clearly observed that from the record, the lands do not fall in the category of Chambal Command Area and the Additional Collector (Ceiling), Kota committed error in calculating 122.42 standard acre land of 225.1 bighas of land. The Board of Revenue, instead of remanding the matter to consider the ceiling area as per soil classification, after relying upon the returns of the disputed lands available on record and following the old ceiling law, recalculated the ceiling area and observed that the available 225.1 bighas of land of both the khatedars, is equivalent to 70.18 standard acre.

(v) The Board of Revenue observed that 70.18 standard acre land belongs to two brother-Khatedars, hence, each Khatedar gets 35.09-35.09 standard acre land in his share on the appointed date i.e. 01.04.1966. Then, the Board of Revenue calculated the number of family members of writ petitioner Chatur Bhuj, which were found to be five in number, hence, Chatur Bhuj was held entitled to retain 30 standard acre land and his 5.09 standard acre land was declared as surplus, liable to be acquired by the State Government, but as far as another Khatedar Mangya is concerned, in his family, seven members were noticed, hence, he was entitled to retain 35.09 standard acre land.

(vi) In the aforesaid backdrop of factual matrix, Khatedar Mangya has accepted the criteria of assessing the ceiling land on the basis of returns of land in question and not challenged the judgment passed by the Board of Revenue dated 19.12.1988, however, original writ petitioner Chatur Bhuj has challenged the judgment of Board of Revenue, by way of filing the instant writ petition.

4. Learned counsel for the petitioners, in his first phase of arguments, though tried to persuade this Court that the calculation of ceiling land was made, treating the lands to the nature of Chambal Command Area, which is ex-facie illegal and against record. Learned counsel submits that the ceiling area must be calculated as per the soil classification of the land and in sup