Court : Supreme Court of India
Reported in : AIR1981SC522; (1980)4SCC716; [1980]3SCR1209
..... in this batch of writ petitions, the main question that falls for determination, is whether the provisions of chapter iib of the west bengal land reforms act, 1955 (act x of 1956) inserted by the west bengal land reforms (amendment) art, 1971 (president's act iii of 1971), and replaced by the west bengal land reforms (amendment) act, 1972 (act xii of 1972) with retrospective effect from february 15, 1971, which provide for a fixation of ceiling on agricultural holdings and for matters ancillary thereto, are violative of the second proviso to article 31a(1) of the constitution.2. ..... it will be noticed that both section 4(3) and section 6(2) of the west bengal land reforms act, 1955 stood deleted by the west bengal land reforms (amendment) act, 1971 (president's act iii of 1971) and thereafter by the west bengal land reforms (amendment) act, 1972 with retrospective effect from february 12, 1971.29. ..... by parity of reasoning, it must follow as a necessary corollary that the west bengal land reforms act, 1955 (act x of 1956) and the west bengal land reforms (amendment) act, 1972 (act xi1 of 1972) which introduced chapter iib therein with retrospective effect, from february 15, 1971, having been placed in the ninth schedule by the constitution (thirty-fourth amendment) act, 1974, as items 60 and 81 thereof, their validity cannot be questioned under article 31b. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : Supreme Court of India
Reported in : AIR1989SC931; JT1989(1)SC216; 1989(1)SCALE207; (1989)2SCC361; [1989]1SCR396; 1989(1)LC704(SC)
..... this appeal on special leave arises out of an application for preemption filed under the provisions of section 8 of west bengal land reforms act, 1955 (west bengal act x of 1956) by the respondent, md. ..... as has been stated hereinbefore that the definition of land as given in the west bengal land reforms act, 1955 refers to agricultural land and includes homestead. ..... taking notice of this provision it is crystal clear that homestead land does not fall within the province of non-agricultural land both under the non-agricultural tenancy act as well as under the west bengal land reforms act, 1955. ..... section 2(6) of the west bengal land reforms act, 1955 defines holding as:'holding' means the land or lands held by a raiyat and treated as a unit for assessment of revenue.15 ..... section 2(4)(a) defines non-agricultural land as land used for purposes not connected with agriculture or horticulture but does not include a homestead to which the provisions of the west bengal land reforms act, 1955 apply. ..... boundary walls annexed to or appertaining to such dwelling house;.therefore, on a conspectus of the aforesaid provisions, it obviously follows that homestead of an agriculturist even though the same is included in the holding of the raiyat but not on the agricultural land still it is to be treated as agricultural land being the homestead of the agriculturist under the provisions of the west bengal land reforms act read with west bengal estates acquisition act and west bengal non-agricultural tenancy .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : Supreme Court of India
Reported in : AIR1984SC374; 1983(2)SCALE856; (1984)2SCC381; [1984]1SCR849; 1984(16)LC248(SC)
..... having realised that the west bengal estates acquisition act, 1953 (hereinafter referred to as the '1953 act') could not be challenged the landlords waited for future litigations to swoop down on the validity of the west bengal land reforms act, 1955 (hereinafter referred to as the '1955 act') as amended by the west bengal land reforms (amendment) act, 1972 and the west bengal land reforms (amendment) act, 1977 (for facility, to be referred to as the 'amendment act of 1972' and 'amendment act, of 1977' respectively).5. ..... this case is yet another glaring illustration of such an adroit attempt made by the tenants-in-chief to deprive the actual tillers of the rights conferred on them by the land reforms acts of west bengal passed from 1953 to 1977, in view, however, of the modern trends of the decisions of this court, which always made a practical and pragmatic approach to any progressive step taken by the parliament, the attempts of the landlords ..... in the instant case, we are concerned with agrarian reforms achieved from time to time by the government of west bengal in order to improve the lot of the tillers of the land by giving them as many facilities as could be possible within the framework of the law and the constitution. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : Supreme Court of India
Reported in : 2009(3)SCALE215(1); (2009)4SCC453; 2009(3)LC1260(SC)
..... view that since section 14z of the west bengal land reforms act, 1955 (hereinafter referred to as the `1955 act') has become operative on and from 7-8-1969, the impugned order of resumption under the proviso to section 6(3) of the 1953 act which was made on 21-8-1996 was misconceived and illegal, as in the opinion of the high court the proviso to section 6(3) of the 1953 act does not continue in operation after the enactment of section 14z of the 1955 act which has been given retrospective operation wef ..... this writ petition has been filed under article 32 of the constitution for declaring the amendment brought about in the west bengal land reforms act, 1955 in so far as they relate to section 4 and section 14z(1) of the west bengal land reforms act, 1955 as unconstitutional.42. ..... also, it may be mentioned that section 63 of the 1955 act repealed certain provisions of west bengal non-agricultural tenancy act, 1949 which were repugnant to the provisions of the west bengal land reforms (amendment) act, 1981 in any district or in any area of calcutta.19. ..... section 30 of the 1955 act repealed the west bengal land holding revenue act, 1979 with effect from the date notified by the state government in the official gazette.20. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : Supreme Court of India
Reported in : AIR1981SC1030; 1981(1)SCALE391; (1981)2SCC283; [1981]2SCR950; 1981(13)LC283(SC)
..... fazal ali, j.these petitions under article 32 of the constitution have been filed in order to challenge the vires of the west bengal land reforms act, 1955 (hereinafter referred to as the '1955 act') as also various amendments made to the s aid act upto 1977. ..... 1345 of 1979, which has been adopted by the counsel for the petitioners appearing in other petitions, centres round the validity of-(1) the west bengal land reforms (amendment) act, 1977 (published in the gazette extraordinary on 3-2-1978), and (2) section 20b, sub-sections (3), (4) and (5), of the 1955 act. ..... the second plank of argument was confined to the validity of the west bengal land reforms (amendment) act, 1972 (hereinafter referred to as the 'amendment act of 1972') which was in the nature of a ceiling act prescribing a particular ceiling of the area of land which could be retained by the tenant. ..... 2 by the west bengal land reforms (amendment act, 1977, may be extracted thus:-"provided that such person or member of his family resides for the greater part of the year in the locality where the land is situated and the principal source of his income is produced from such land.explanation-the term "family" shall have the same meaning as in clause (c) of section 14k"it was submitted that the proviso insists that the cultivator or member of his family must reside in the ..... 20b of the 1955 act, let a copy of this judgment be sent to the hon'ble chief minister of west bengal. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : Supreme Court of India
Reported in : AIR1993SC2103; JT1993(3)SC433; 1993(2)SCALE749; 1993Supp(4)SCC674; [1993]3SCR481
..... on appeal the division bench in the impugned judgment held that the appellants should take action under the west bengal land reforms act, 1955 within a period of two months from the date of the said judgment and on its failure, the respondent would be at liberty to deal with and dispose of the lands in its own manner. ..... the direction given to initiate the action under the land reforms act 1955 within the specified period and on failure thereto liberty given to the respondent to alienate the lands is beyond the relief sought in the writ petition. ..... the division bench, therefore, rightly directed to initiate proceedings under the land reforms act and to take action thereunder.6. ..... so the division bench directed to take action under the land reforms act,4. ..... kasba, admeasuring 128.40 acres and to take possession of tank fisheries lying therein pursuant to the provisions of west bengal estate acquisition act, 1953, act 1 of 1954, for short 'the act'. ..... under the state from the date of vesting as a tenant, subject to such terms and conditions as may be determined under the provisions of this act and as entered in the record or rights finally published under chapter v except that no rent shall be payable for land referred to in clause(h) or (i), provided that if any tank fishery or any land, comprised in a tea-garden, orchard, mill, factory or workshop was held immediately before the date of vesting under a lease, such lease ..... in state of west bengal v. ..... , state of west bengal v. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : Supreme Court of India
Reported in : AIR1980SC2097; 1980Supp(1)SCC574; [1980]3SCR1181
..... for that matter even the case of a divorced daughter who has come back to the family by providing for addition of some more land to the permissible area of the primary unit of the family for each such unmarried major daughter or such divorced daughter which again could be subjected to some maximum limit or the state of haryana may draw inspiration from a kindred legislation like west bengal land reforms act 1955 as amended by west bengal (land reforms) amendment act, 1972.16. ..... that provisions pertaining to artificial definition of family and the adoption of double standards for fixation of ceiling contained in the instant act are similar to those which obtained in the kerala agrarian relations act, 1961 and the madras land reforms (fixation of ceiling on land) act, 1961, but even so, there are two distinguishing features which would make the ratio of those two decisions inapplicable to the instant ..... has taken the view that the provisions of punjab land reforms act are saved by both articles 31-a and 31-b of ..... division bench relied on a full bench decision of that court in sucha singh's case where similar provisions of the punjab land reforms act (act 10 of 1973) had been struck dowa. ..... similarly, in the second case, the court was dealing with madras land reforms (fixation of ceiling on land) act, 1961 where the definition of family given in section 3(14) was regarded as artificial and since section 5(1)(a) adopted a double standard for fixing the ceiling, the court held that the same .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : Supreme Court of India
Reported in : (SCSuppl)2004(2)CHN164; 2004(3)SCALE36; (2004)4SCC252
..... made an application under section 8 of the west bengal land reforms act, 1955 (for brevity 'the act') in the munsif court claiming right of pre-emption on the basis of vicinage being the owner of adjoining plots of land purchased on 20.7.1966 and 1.6.1981. ..... an answer to the question, it is both useful and necessary to reproduce relevant portions of the provisions of the act and limitation act:-west bengal land reforms act, 1955'8. ..... section (1) must be filed shall be thirty days from the date of the order appealed against:provided that an appeal against any order referred to in sub-section (2) of section 18a made before the commencement of the west bengal land reforms (amendment) act, 1960 may be filed within ninety days of such commencement:provided further that the provisions of section 5 of the indian limitation act, 1908 shall apply to an appeal under this section. ..... was added to section 8 of the act by the west bengal land reforms (amendment) act, 1972 w.e.f. ..... the act is of 1955 and for all these years, no provision is made under section 8 of the act providing for ..... another good reason for insisting that right of pre-emption must be exercised within the period specified under section 8 of the act so that the rights of purchasers of a land cannot be eclipsed for a long time. ..... an application to enforce right of pre-emption under section 8 of the act as a contiguous land owner in the munsif court stating that he came to know about the sale deed of the land in question on 18.2.1989. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : Supreme Court of India
Reported in : AIR2004SC5080; (SCSuppl)2005(1)CHN152; JT2004(9)SC136; 2004(8)SCALE800; (2004)11SCC497
..... short question that arises for consideration in this appeal is whether any permission is required under sections 4b read with section 4c of the west bengal land reforms act, 1955 (for short 'the act') by the owners of the orchards to fell the old trees for replacing them by new saplings having greater potential of yield'.2. ..... by legislation, scope and application of section 4a is consciously confined to the said three sub-divisions of darjeeling district, court cannot enlarge or extend its scope to the other lands in the state of west bengal situated in areas other than these sub-divisions. ..... after he cut two to three trees, the local police personnel and the block land reforms officer prevented the appellant from further felling, citing the judgment of the supreme court ..... state of west bengal (supra) was of the opinion that anticipated change of the character and user of the lands comprising orchards cannot be a ground for objecting to the felling of the trees belonging to the owners in the absence of any law prohibiting them from ..... 'forest' must be understood according to its dictionary meaning, this description covers all statutorily recognised forests, whether designated as reserved, protected or otherwise for the purpose of section 2(i) of the forest conservation act, the term 'forest land', occurring in section 2, will not only include 'forest' as understood in the dictionary sense, but also any area recorded as forest in the government record irrespective of the ownership. .....
Tag this Judgment!Court : Supreme Court of India
Reported in : [2009(1)JCR151(SC)]; 2008(13)SCALE480
..... as per section 14t(3) of the west bengal land reforms act, 1955 (hereinafter referred to as the 'act'), it was incumbent upon the revenue officer to determine the surplus area held by kulada prosad dana's family but as no return had been filed by the landowners as provided in the act, proceedings were initiated on 2nd december, 1977 by the revenue officer under section 14t(3) thereof ..... in this background if an appeal is filed by the land owner - respondents within 60 days from the date that a certified copy of this order be supplied to them, the state of west bengal shall not raise the plea of limitation.7. ..... the appellant- state of west bengal filed a written statement raising various pleas including a challenge to the gift deeds made by kulada prosad dana and anila in favour of their sons ..... order dated 24th july, 2002 has been impugned by the state of west bengal in this appeal.3. ..... the state of west bengal, thereafter filed title appeal ..... gupta, the learned senior counsel for the appellant - state has pointed out that by virtue of section 61 of the act, the jurisdiction of the civil court was barred in such matters though admittedly this objection had not been taken at any stage in the civil proceedings or even in the special leave petition filed in this ..... judgment and order dated 29th july, 1981, the munsif decreed the suit and issued a direction that no order for vesting of the land be passed and that the total area held by the family was within the permissible area of 25 acres. .....
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