JUDGMENT

J.K. Tandon, J. - The Petitioner was Taluqdar of Rehwa estate in the district of Bahraich. He owned 58 villages described in Schedule A to this petition By a notification u/s 4 of the UPZA and LR Act, 1950 all his interest in the said villages as Taluqdar was acquired under the said Act and he became entitled to payment of compensation in lieu thereof.

2. Ch. III of the UP ZA and LR Act lays down the procedure for determination of compensation payable to intermediaries whose estates have been acquired under the Act. Section 39 provides the manner in which gross assets, as respects a Mahal, shall be computed and Section 40 contains provisions for the preparation of Draft Compensation Assessment Roll in respect of each intermediary separately. Section 42 says how the gross assets of an intermediary shall be arrived at. Then comes Section 44 which requires net assets of every intermediary to be determined. Section 46 says that after the Draft Compensation Assessment Roll in respect of any intermediary has been prepared the same shall be published in the manner laid down in it, while persons desiring to file objections will also be required to do so within, a period of two months. The next two sections make provision for the hearing and deciding of objections. u/s 49 the order of the Compensation Officer deciding an objection is to be deemed to be a decree of a civil court and an appeal therefrom to the District Judge is permitted by Section 50. The next two Ss. 50A and 51 are not relevant at the present occasion. Section 52 provides as under:

52. (1) Where no objection has been filed in regard to the draft Compensation Assessment Roll in pursuance of the notice u/s 46 or where such objections are filed and have been finally disposed of and the draft Compensation Assessment Roll amended, altered or modified accordingly, the Compensation Officer shall sign the same and also affix his seal thereto.

(2) The Compensation Assessment Roll when so signed and sealed shall become final.

U/S. 53 a copy of the Compensation Assessment Roll is to be delivered free of charge to the intermediary concerned by the Compensation Officer. The next relevant provision is Section 60 which says that the amount of compensation determined u/s 54 or 55 as payable to an intermediary shall be declared by the Compensation Officer in respect of his interest in the Mahal to which the Compensation Assessment Roll relates & the Compensation Officer shall record it in the Roll in his own writing. Then comes Section 61 which says that except as provided by or under the Act, no correction shall be made in the Compensation Assessment Roll after it has become final. Sub S. (2) of this section, however, permits the Compensation Officer at any time before the payment of compensation to correct any clerical or arithmetical mistakes in the Compensation Assessment Roll or any error arising therein from any accidental slip or omission. This he may do suo motu or on an application filed by the person interested.

3. In the present case there is no dispute that the Compensation Assessment Roll in respect of 58 villages had been finalised on 27-12-54. The amount of compensation payable to the Petitioner on the basis of the final Compensation Assessment Roll was also determined and entered in the final Compensation Roll. Nearly ten months after the finalisatior of the Compensation Assessment Roll the same was amended by the Compensation Officer by reducing the amount of compensation initially determined by Rs. 1, 15, 144. This decrease was with respect to 12 villages mentioned at serial Nos. 1 to 12 in the list given in Schedule A. The amount of compensation which was determined originally at Rs. 3,02,660-13-4 was thus reduced to Rs. 1,87,516 13-4. When the Petitioner, whose case is that the above change was made without notice to him, got in formation about the alteration made in the Compensation Roll he preferred objections. It is said that those objections are still pending