M.M.KUMAR, J.

1. These are five Regular Second Appeals, namely, RSA Nos. 528 of 1977, 2134 of 1982, 540 of 1987, 1656 of 1987 and 411 of 1998, which have been referred to this five Judge Bench by noticing a conflict between two earlier 3-Judge Benches in the case of Joginder Singh Kundha Singh v. Kehar Singh Dasaundha Singh, AIR 1965 Punjab 407 and Pritam Singh v. Assistant Controller of Estate Duty, Patiala, 1976 PLR 342. The suspected conflict has been pointed out by Hon ble Mr. Justice S. P. Goyal in the reference order dated 25-4-1980, passed in R.S.A. No. 105 of 1979.

2. To begin with, it may first be appropriate to notice the issue on which two Full Benches are stated to have conflict. The aforementioned conflict has been noticed by Hon ble Mr. Justice S. P. Goyal (as he then was) in his reference order dated 25-4-1980, which is required to be read in extenso. The reference order was recorded in Regular Second Appeal No. 105 of 1979 (Mal Singh v. Jassa Singh and others). Those appeals were eventually withdrawn but the reference has been read in the instant appeals. There the dispute was regarding validity of transfer of land made in pursuance to consent decree by the