JUDGMENT :

Siddhartha Varma, J.

This writ petition has been filed with a prayer that proceedings initiated on 16.6.2015 by the Respondent No. 2, the Collector/District Magistrate, Meerut, District - Meerut, numbered as Nil of 2015 be quashed.

2. When on 6.4.1979, the Ceiling Authorities had declared 76 bighas, 16 biswas and 11 biswansis of land surplus of the D.C.M. Sri Ram Industries Ltd. and when the ceiling proceedings were finalized by the High Court, the petitioners along with the other tenure holders were granted pattas on the surplus land. When by the order dated 23/27 July 2014, the Bhumidhari rights of the petitioners which had accrued to them over the allotted land under Section 131B of the Uttar Pradesh Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act, 1950, (hereinafter referred to as 'the U.P.Z.A. & L.R. Act') were being withdrawn, the petitioners alongwith the other tenure holders had filed Writ - C No. 51745 of 2014. This writ petition was ultimately allowed on 28.3.2017. Thereafter, when another proceeding under Section 27(4) of the U.P. Imposition of Ceiling on Land Holdings Act, 1960, (hereinafter referred to as 'the Ceiling Act') was initiated, the petitioners filed a writ petition being Writ - C No. 19819 of 2015 which was also allowed on 28.9.2018 and the entire proceedings were quashed.

3. The instant writ petition arises out of proceedings which were initiated by the notice dated 16.6.2015, by which the Respondent No. 2 had sought to declare the allotted plots of land under Sections 166 and 167 of the U.P.Z.A. & L.R. Act as having vested in the State since the petitioners had made certain transactions which were in violation of the provisions of the U.P.Z.A. & L.R. Act. Learned counsel has assailed the proceedings which were initiated under Sections 166 & 167 of the U.P.Z.A. & L.R. Act, on the following amongst other grounds:-

(i) Learned counsel had stated that the permission under Section 157-A and 157-AA of the U.P.Z.A. & L.R. Act was required to be taken only if there was some transfer by means of sale, gift, mortgage or lease by the Bhumidhar and he, therefore, submits that when the allegation was only to the effect that the petitioners had entered into some agreement to sell the land in question with certain persons, then it could not be said that there was any transfer yet and, therefore, it could not also be said that there was any violation of any provision of U.P.Z.A. & L.R. Act. Learned counsel read out Sections 157-A, 157-AA, 166 and 167 of the U.P.Z.A. & L.R. Act and, therefore the same are being reproduced here as under:-

157-A. Restrictions on transfer of land by members of Scheduled Castes. - (1) Without prejudice to the restrictions contained in Sections 153 to 157, no bhumidhar or asami belonging to a Scheduled Caste shall have the right to transfer any land by way of sale, gift, mortgage or lease to a person not belonging to a Scheduled Caste, except with the previous approval of the Collector:

Provided that no such approval shall be given by the Collector in case where the land held in Uttar Pradesh by the transfer on the date of application under this section is less than 1.26 hectares or where the area of land so held in Uttar Pradesh by the transferor on the said date is after such transfer, likely to be reduced to less than 1.26 hectares.

(2) The collector shall, on an application made in that behalf in the prescribed manner, make such inquiry as may be prescribed.

157-AA. Restrictions on transfer by member of Scheduled Castes becoming Bhumidhar under Section 131-B. - (1) Notwithstanding anything contained in Section 157-A, and without prejudice to the restrictions contained in Sections 153 to 157, no person belonging to a Scheduled Caste having become a Bhumidhar with transferable rights under Section 131-B shall have the right to transfer the land by way of sale, gift, mortgage or lease to a person other than a person belonging to a Scheduled Caste and such transfer, if any, shall be in the foll