Geeta Devi Vs. State of Rajasthan and anr. - Court Judgment

Excerpt:
rajasthan colonisation act, 1954 - sections 13 and 13 a--question of facts involved--held, it should not be decided in revision.;it being a question of fact, should not be decided by this court but it should be left to the concerned authorities to decide the question.;order accordingly - kanta bhatnagar, j.1. the petitioner in these writ petitions are transferees of land transferred in their favour by the tenants who had acquired khatedari rights. their transfers, however, have been treated by the respondents as void, being in contravention of the provisions of section 13 of the rajasthan colonisation act, 1954 (for short 'the act' hereinafter). the petitioners have challenged the validity of sections 13 and 13-a of the act. as identical questions are involved in all these writ petitions, we propose to dispose them of by a common order.2. at the commencement of the arguments, mr. purohit, mr. sidhu, mr. kalla, learned counsel for the petitioners submitted that a bunch of 95 writ petitions involving identical questions were decided by the learned single judge of this court on 24-2-86, wherein sections 13 and 13-a of the act were held to be valid. learned counsel submitted that certain petitioners, aggrieved of that decision, have preferred special appeals, challenging the finding relating to the validity of sections 13 and 13-a of the act. as such, the learned counsel submitted that they drop the challenge to the validity of sections 13 and 13-a of the act, in these writ petitions and pray for the decision of the writ petitions in line with the findings of the learned single judge, regarding the various categories put in the arguments before the learned single judge and his directions regarding the decision of the matter before the concerned authority.3. learned counsel for the petitioners have contended that in the aforesaid judgment of the learned single judge, the transferees were divided into five categories and the petitioners' cases are covered by categories 2,3 and 4 and can be disposed of in the light of clause (3) of the last portion of the judgment.the five categories in the aforesaid judgment have been enumerated as under:in category 1. fall the cases of transferees who acquired their rights and interest in the land from ex-jagirdar as mentioned under the land reforms and resumption of jagirs act, 1952.4. presently, we are not concerned with that category of transferees.in category no. 2 come the cases of transferees who got the land from such tenants to whom khatedari rights accrued prior to the coming into force of the act.in category no. 3 come the cases of those transferees of such khatedars, who got the land by auction purchase from the government and became khatedar-tenants much before the rules framed under the colonisation act came into force.category no. 4 comprises those transferees who got the land as a result of partition or family settlement of the joint family holdings.5. the remaining petitioners in those writ petitions were placed in category no. 5. we are presently concerned with the transferees falling in categories no. 2, 3 and 4, regarding whom the direction in the judgment deciding the bunch of petitions was that the collector will first decide the question whether the transferors or the transferees had acquired their khatedari rights even before the coming into force of the act and will then proceed in accordance with law.6. mr. r.p. dave, learned addl. government advocate, has also contended that this court should not express any opinion regarding the acquirement of the khatedari rights.7. we agree with mr. dave that it being a question of fact, should not be decided by this court but it should be left to the concerned authorities to decide the question. it is ordered that in the case of the petitioners in these writ petitions, the collector will first decide the question whether the transferors or the transferees had acquired their khatedari rights even before the coming into force of the act and will then proceed in accordance with law.with these directions, the writ petitions stand disposed off.