- (1.) These appeals by special leave are directed against the decision of the Allahabad High Court in writ petitions arising out of proceedings under the U.ttar Pradesh Imposition of Ceiling on Land Holdings Act, 1960, as amended subsequently. The landholders are the appellants.
(2.) There is no dispute that 24th January, 1971, is the appointed date under the statute. S. 5(6) of the Act categorically provides that any transfer of land after that date would be inoperative, if in the absence of transfer, that land in the hands of the transferor,. would have been subjected to the provision of the Act. It is not in dispute that the land in question is affected by that provision.
(3.) Reliance has been placed on the second clause of the proviso which saves transfers for adequate consideration between the appointed date and the date on which the statute came into force being 8th June, 1973. We are concerned with the gift which is the alienation in question, in favour of the landholder's wife's brother. The High Court dismissed the claim of the appellants by holding that Cl. (b) of the provison did not apply. That clause provides:- "A transfer proved to the satisfaction of the prescribed authority to be in good faith and for adequate consideration and under an irrevocable instrument not being a benami transaction or for the immediate or deferred benefit of the tenure-holders or other members of his family.";