SupremeToday Landscape Ad
Back
Next
Judicial Analysis Court Copy Headnote Facts Arguments Court observation
Listen Article Pause Article
judgment-img

2016 Supreme(Jhk) 197

IN THE HIGH COURT OF JHARKHAND AT RANCHI
D.N. PATEL & AMITAV K. GUPTA, JJ.
Jawaharlal Jha and Another – Appellants
Versus
State of Jharkhand and Others – Respondents
Civil Review No. 62 of 2013
Decided On : 10-02-2016

Advocates Appeared:
For the Appellant :Rajeeva Sharma, Senior Advocate.
For the Respondent: Rajesh Shankar, G.A.

Headnote:Santhal Parganas Tenancy (Supplementary Provisions) Act, 1949---Section 69(a)---Surrender of land by Raiyat in favour of Government---However, a raiyat can always surrender or gift land to Government---Such transaction does not breach provisions of Section 69(a)---Review petition rejected.

JUDGMENT :

D.N. PATEL, J.

1. This Civil Review application has been preferred for reviewing the order dated 2-7-2013 passed by the Division Bench in writ petition being W.P. (PIL) No. 318 of 2013.

2. Having heard counsels for both the sides and looking to the facts and circumstances of the case, it appears that the land in question which referred to in the writ petition was a raiyati land and was gifted by a raiyat to the State Government, upon this land, a Panchyat Bhawan was to be constructed, therefore, writ petition was preferred being W.P. (PIL) No. 318 of 2013. That a raiyat cannot surrender or transfer the land in favour of the Government, which are non-transfer-able land. This Court, while disposing of the writ petition, observed in para 2 onwards, as under:-

"2. Petitioners' contention is that the land in question is a raiyati land, which has been gifted by the raiyat to the State Government and other that and Panchayat Bhavan is sought to be constructed. Before that, another land was selected and approved, which was not declared to be unsuitable but even then this change has been made.

2. There is already a report of one Revenue Officer that land could not have been transferred, in view of the bar created by Section 69-A of the Santhal Pargana Tenancy Act, which prohibits transfer of land to any other person.

3. In this case, petition has been filed, not by any of the person having interest in the property and it has been filed as Public Interest in the property and it has been filed as Public Interest Litigation though it is not the case that person aggrieved cannot protect his right, if he has any grievance. The only public interest shown by the petitioners is that some of the descendants of person who has gifted the land to the Government for construction of Panchayat Bhavan may raise objection. On the face of it, this plea is absolutely untenable and will not make this petition as a public interest litigation in any manner.

3. In view of the above reasons, we are of the considered opinion that Section 69-A of the Santhal Pargana Tenancy Act cannot be interpreted to mean that the raiyat cannot surrender land to the State Government and that may be prohibited by way of gift also.

4. Be that as it may, there appears no public interest involved in this petition. Hence, the writ petition is dismissed."

By mistake, paragraph No. 3 is numbered as No. 2, paragraph No. 4 is numbered as No. 3, paragraph No. 5 is numbered as No. 3, and paragraph No. 6 is numbered as No. 4.

3. It appears that there is no need of any review of the aforesaid order dated 2-7-2013, passed by this Court in W.P. (PIL) No. 318 of 2013. Raiyat can always surrender the land of gift the land to the Government, i.e., the only observation, for which this review application has been preferred. It ought to be kept in mind that a raiyat has a right to transfer the land to the Government, i.e., never prohibited by any Act, much less under Section 69A of the Santhal Pargana Tenancy Act. Inter-se between the two private parties, land may not be transferred, but always a raiyat can surrender or gift the land to the Government under the Santhal Pargana Tenancy Act and it is not a violation of Section 69A of this Act. There are various concepts of transfer of the land and, in fact, one of the concepts is that, if any mining operations are to be carried out for any valuable purpose on the land, it always belongs to the Government as citizens, who are using the surface area of the land.

4. It has been held by Hon'ble the Supreme Court in the case of Aribam Tuleshwar Sharma v. Aibam Pishak Sharma, as reported in (1979) 4 SCC 389 : AIR 1979 SC 1047 at paragraph 3 as under:-

"3. The Judicial Commissioner gave two reasons for reviewing his predecessor's order. The first was that his predecessor had overlooked two important documents Exs. A-1 and A-3 which showed that the respondents were in possession of the sites even in the year 1948-49 and that the grants must have been made e

































































Click Here to Read the rest of this document

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
SupremeToday Portrait Ad
supreme today icon
whatsapp-icon Back to top