The court emphasized that a transfer made during a life interest is void under the Land Ceiling Act, but substantive rights under the Transfer of Property Act remain intact, necessitating a civil suit for resolution.

ORDER :

(N. Sathish Kumar, J.)

Challenge in this writ petition is the proceedings of the 3rd respondent dated 18.01.2024 in Na.Ka.No.2064/2022/A1 directing the Thasildar, Dharapuram, Tiruppur District, to (i) sub-divide and demarcate the retainable portion of Acres 8.73 cents of land in S.F.No.552/1 (Old No.514/5), Chittaravuthanpalayam Village, Dharapuram Taluk, and include the name of legal heirs of late Seethaiammal along with the names of the existing pattadars in the joint patta issued earlier; and (ii) to sub divide an extent Acres 3.77 cents of land comprised in S.No.552, which was declared as surplus into two parts and enter the name of Smt.Lakshmi in respect of southern portion measuring an extent of Acre 1.88 ½ cents of land and Smt.Valarmathi in respect of the northern portion measuring an extent of Acre 1.88 ½ cents in the village accounts and grant conditional patta.

2.0. The brief facts leading to the filing of the present writ petition are as follows:

2.1. A landed property measuring an extent of 88.93 ½ ordinary Acres, equivalent to 23.753 Standard Acres situated in Chittaravuthanpalayam Village, Dharapuram Taluk, Erode District, was originally owned by one Deivasigamani Gounder. He had executed a WILL dated 14.07.1952 registered as Doc.No.20 of 1952 in favour of his daughters (i) Palaniammal, (ii) Krishnammal, (iii) Kaliathal and (iv) Saraswathy in respect of the above said property, however giving life interest to his wife-Seethaiammal.

2.2. After the demise of Deivasigamani Gounder on 13.05.1953, the WILL dated 14.07.1952 came into effect and his daughters partitioned the property amicably among themselves through a registered partition deed dated 27.03.1972 vide Doc.No.539 of 1972.

2.3. Thereafter, the 1st petitioner and the husband of the 2nd petitioner purchased an extent of Acres 12.50 cents of land in S.No.552/1 (Old S.NO.514) from Krishnammal, one of the four daughters of Deivasigamani Gounder for valuable consideration through a sale deed dated 25.08.1980 registered as Doc.No.2572 of 1980 on the file of the Sub Registrar, Dharapuram. The revenue records in respect of the said land were also mutated to reflect the ownership of the 1st petitioner - G.Gopal and Ramakrishnan, the husband of the 2nd petitioner.

2.4. In the meanwhile, a proceedings under Section 10(1) of the Tamil Nadu Land Reforms (Fixation of Ceiling on Land) Act, 1961 (for short, “the Land Ceiling Act”) came to be initiated in respect of the entire land in question and a draft statement was published in the Tamil Nadu Government Gazette. Seethaiammal who was the life interest holder was served with a notice in the land ceiling proceedings. In response to the same, Seethaiammal filed her detailed objections underscoring that her husband died in 1954 and at that point of time, their four daughters were minors and as such, as per WILL dated 14.07.1952, she was given only a life interest and after the demise of her husband, revenue records reflected the interest of their daughters and at no point on time, she owned more than 15 standard acres in her name. Despite the objections having been made by Seethaiammal that the property was partitioned among her daughters, the authorized officer proceeded to pass an order holding that Seethaiammal was deemed to be the owner and entitled to entire land as per sub-section (28) of Section 3 of the Land Ceiling Act and accordingly declared Acres 8.953 standard acres of land as surplus land under the Land Ceiling Act.

2.5. Challenging the order of the authorized officer declaring 8.953 standards acres of land as surplus land, Seethaiammal preferred an appeal before the Land Tribunal (Principal Subordinate Judge), Erode and the Land Tribunal by its order dated 27.11.1981 dismissed the appeal preferred by Seethaiammal in L.T.A.No.26 of 1979. Aggrieved by such order, Seethaiammmal filed a civil revision petition in C.R.P.No.422 of 1982 on the file of this Court and this court by order dated 13.07.1983, allowed