Director has power to revise or cancel the order passed by Settlement Officer in suo motu exercise of power under Section 5(2) of Act.

A.P. Shah, C.J.

Whether the Director of Survey and Settlement is vested with suo motu power of revision under Section 5(2) of the Tamil Nadu Estates (Abolition and Conversion into Ryotwari) Act, 1948 (Act 26 of 1948) (for brevity sake, hereinafter will be referred to as the Act) is the issue referred to this Larger Bench. It is not necessary to traverse upon the factual features. Suffice it to say that the Director of Survey and Settlement in exercise of suo motu power under Section 5(2) of the Act cancelled the grant of patta issued in favour of the respondent by the Assistant Settlement Officer. In the writ petition preferred against the order of the Director of Survey and Settlement, the learned Single Judge referred to a decision of the Division Bench in the case of The Director of Survey and Settlement -vs- R. Ramadoss (1992 (2) L.W.265), wherein the Division Bench (consisting of Nainar Sundaram and Thanikkachalam, JJ.) has held that there is no suo motu power of revision under Act 26 of 1948 in the Director of Survey and Settlement under Section 5(2) of the Act. Following the said decision, the learned single Judge allowed the writ petition and set aside the order passed by the Special Commissioner and Director of Survey and Settlement.

2. In W.A.No.326 of 2007 preferred by the State Government against the order of the learned Single Judge, the learned Government Pleader relied upon a decision of this Court in M. Veeraswamy -vs- Special Commissioner and Commissioner of Land Administration (1996 Writ L.R. 554), wherein the Division Bench (consisting of Srinivasan and S.M. Abdul Wahab, JJ.), while interpreting Section 7(c), which is pari materia to Section 5(2), held that the said Section confers power on the Board to cancel or set aside any order passed by the lower authority and certainly it is open to the Board to exercise the said power suo motu" whenever it is found necessary. Since there are conflicting views of the two Division Benches of this Court, the matter has been referred to a Larger Bench.

3. Learned Government Pleader Mr. Raja Kalifulla, appearing for the appellant, submitted that a bare reading of Section 5(2) of the Act would indicate that the power of the Director to revise or cancel any order of the Settlement Officer is plenary and such power could be exercised either on an application by an aggrieved person or suo motu. He placed heavy reliance on an unreported judgment in the case of David Pillai v. The Settlement Officer, Madurai (Writ Appeal No.1296 of 1986 decided on 17. 1989), wherein the Division Bench has held that when a power is conferred upon the Director under Section 5(2) of the Act to revise or cancel any order passed by the Settlement Officer, such a power could be exercised suo motu. On the other hand, Mr. R. Thiagarajan, learned Senior Counsel appearing for the respondent contended that the State Government has framed rules in exercise of the power under Section 67(2)(b) of the Act and since the rules enacted prescribe a procedure for making an application and also lay down the limitation for filing such application, we must take it that it is the only way and method in and by which the power of revision under Section 5(2) of the Act is available for the Director and he cannot travel beyond that. He relied upon the oft-quoted dicta in Taylor v Taylor (1875 (1) Ch D 426) that when power is given under a statute to do a certain thing in a certain way the thing must be done in that way or not at all.

4. In order to appreciate the rival arguments advanced at the Bar, it is necessary to consider the scheme of the relevant provisions of the Act. The Preamble of the Act states that the Act is enacted to provide for the repeal of the permanent settlement, the acquisition of the rights of landholders in permanently settled and certain other estates in the Province of Madras and the introduction of the ryotwari settlement in such estates. Therefore, the main object or the purpose o