LexUJJAGAR SINGH (DEAD) BY LRS. ETC. versus THE COLLECTOR, BHATINDA AND ANR. ETC.
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UJJAGAR SINGH (DEAD) BY LRS. ETC. v. THE COLLECTOR, BHATINDA AND ANR. ETC. AUGUST 1, 1996 [KULDIP SINGH, M.M. PUNCHHI, N.P. SINGH, M.K. MUKHERJEE AND S. SAGHIR AHMAD, JJ.] Land Laws : La11d Ceili11g-Peps11 Tenancy Ag7icultural La11ds Act, 1955 (Pepsu Act)---Punjab Land Refmms Act, 1972 (Pu11jab Act)-Govem- ment declaration u11der Pepsu Act of swplus la11d belo11gi11g to the appel- lant-Possessio11 of la11d 11ot take11 by the Govemmem-Appellant continuing 1vith the possession-Govenunent initiating proceedings against the appellant u11der the Pu11jab Act for taking possession of the swplus la11d declared u11der A B c the Pepsu Act-!11 the inte1veni11g pe1iod he got four som-Held, in the ab- sence of taking of possession of the land by the Govemment, la11d did not D vest in it and 1ights, title and i11terest of the appellant in the land 11ever extin- guished-Held, no useful pwpose would be se1ved by issuing direction to the Govemment to examine afresh the question of surplus land held by the ap- pella11t along with his four sons. The original appellant held lands out of which 218 kanals of land E were declared surplus under the Pepsu Tenancy Agricultural Lands Act, 1955 (Pepsu Act.) Under Section 32 E(a) of the Pepsu Act, the surplus area shall be the date on which possession thereof is taken by the State Govern- ment be deemed to have been acquired by the State Government for public purpose and all rights, title and interest of all persons in such land shall F be extinguished and such rights, title and interest shall vest in the State Government free from encumbrances. In the instant case, the lands belonging to the appellant which were declared surplus under the Pepsu Act were not taken over by the Govern- G ment. They remained in possession of the appellant. When Punjab Land Reforms Act, 1972 came into force, fresh steps were taken for declaring the lands held by the appellant as surplus. The appellant filed objection saying that on the relevant date he had four sons and as such there was no surplus land held by him. Under Sections 8 and 9 of the Pu'1jab Act proceedings were initiated directing the appellant to hand over the posses- H 239 240 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1996) SUPP. 4 S.C.R. A sion of the surplus land declared under the Pepsu Act. The appellant filed writ petition questioning the validity of the action of the respondents. The High Court dismissed the writ petition in limine. Hence, this appeal. B Allo\\ing the appeal, this Court c HELD : 1. In view of Section 32 E (a) of the Pepsu Tenancy Agricul- tural Lands Act, 1955, only when the yossession of the land which has been declared as surplus is taken over by the state Government that it shall be deemed to have been acquired and all rights, title and interest of person concerned in such land are extinguished. In the instant case, possession was never taken by or on behalf of the Government. [243-E; 247-A] Financial Con1111issione1; Ha1yana State and Ors. v. Sn1t. Kela Devi and Anr., [1980] 1 SCC 77 and Ranjit Ram v. The Financial Commissione1; D Revenue, Punjab and 01"., (1981) 83 P.L.R. 492 referred to. E F G Amar Singh v. Ajmer Singh, [1994] 3 Supp. SCC 213 inapplicable. 2. When the Punjab Land Reforms Act, 1972 came into force the appellant had four sons and if ceiling is fixed afresh in accordance with the provisions of the Act, the appellant has no surplus land. [243-H; 244-A] 3. No useful purpose would be served by issuing any direction to the Government to examine the 11uestion of surplus land held by the appellant along with his four sons. [247-E] 4. All proceedings initiated against the appellant either under the provisions of the Pepsu Act or under the Punjab Land Reforms Act are quashed. [247-F] CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION : Civil Appeal No. 1208 of 1975 Etc. Etc. From the Judgment and Order dated 3.9.74 of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in C.W.P. No. 4683 of 1974. M.L. Verma, D.V. Sehgal, Jitendra Sharma, V.C. Mahajan, Dhruv Mehta, Vimal Dave, R.S. Sodhi, Manoj Swarup, Ms. Lalita Kohli, G.K. H Bansal, T.S. Arora, Ms. Naresh Bakshi, P.N. Puri, Ms. G. Dara, B.K. Pal, UJJAGAR SINGH i: COLLECTOR, BHATINDA[N.P. SINGH,J.j 241 P. Mahale, Prem Malhotra, Piyush, Ms. Kamini Jaiswal, Pankaj Kalra, S.K. A Mehta, Fazlin Anam, S. Srinivasan, Ms. Indu Malhotra, R.C. Pathak, K.K. Gupta, AK. Mahajan, K.K. Gupta, H.M. Singh, Sanjeev Malhotra, Gaurav Jain, Ms. Abha .Jain, Anil K. Chopra,
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