- (1.) These five appeals which have been consolidated for hearing, raise for consideration principally two points: (1) the constitutional validity of the Bhopal Reclamation and Development of Lands (Eradication of Kans) Act, 1954 (Act XIII of 1954) which will be hereafter referred to as the Act, and (2) whether the provisions of the Act, even if constitutionally valid, were complied with in the case before us.
(2.) The Act the provisions of which we shall set out and examine later empowered the State Government to notify areas of the State as "Kans infested areas" and on such notification officers of the State were enabled to enter on the lands within the notified areas and conduct deep ploughing tractorisations operation with a view to eradicate the kans. We might mention even here that Kans are a species of weeds which infest large areas of land in and around the former State of Bhopal now forming part of Madhya Pradesh. The weeds are hardy, quick growing rapidly expanding the area of their infestation and sap the fertility from the soil and thus lead to very poor yield of the land and if the growth is more extensive, practically prevent any crops. The Act provided for the cost incurred in these eradication operations being recovered from the farmers on whose lands the tractorisation was effected. Acting under the said law, considerable extents of land in the former State of Bopal were tractorised and demands were made on the owners of the lands for the payment of the charges claimed as due. Five of these farmers on whom these demands were made thereupon filed petitions under Art. 226 before the Judicial Commissioner, Bhopal challenging the constitutionality of the Act as well as the legality of the levy, even assuming the law to be valid, and these petitions were allowed, and the learned Judicial Commissioner holding the Act to be unconstitutional and the levy illegal, granted the declaration and mandamus prayed for. The appellants thereafter applied for and obtained from the Judicial Commissioner certificates of fitness under Art. 133 (1) (c) and have preferred the appeals which are now before us.
(3.) We shall narrate a few facts which serve as a background to the enactment of the legislation now impugned, and which would also throw some light art some of the points urged by the respondents. It was recognised as early as the first decades of this century that without the eradication of Kans there could be no improvement in the return from the land in the Bhopal and surrounding areas. The question was as to how this was to be accomplished. With this end in view research was conducted by the Imperial Council of Agricultural Research from about 1940 onwards, and as a result it was concluded that the only method of eradicating the pestilential weed was by deep ploughing of the land with tractors which would reach a sufficient depth wherefrom the roots of the weed could be pulled out and exposed and thus destroyed. This conclusion, was accepted by the then Government of Bhopal who between the years 1944-48 carried out experiments by tractorisation or deep ploughing of land in several areas of the State. The experiments demonstrated that tractorisation would increase the out-turn of crops. This experiments ploughing was, however confined to particular villages and areas in the State but the results achieved in them showed that if done systematically, deep ploughing by tractors would help to eradicate the pest and increase the yield from the land. In order to carry out this purpose an Ordinance XXXVIII of 1949 was promulgated on October 20, 1949 whose provisions were substantially identical with those contained in the Act which we shall presently read. The notifications now impugned defining the areas to undergo tractorisation (which included in them the places where the lands of the respondents are situated) were issued under this Ordinance. Similarly, the notices demanding payment of sums from the respondents whose validity is likewise challenged were also issued under it. The Ordinance, however, it is now admitted, was constitutionally incompetently promulgated and had, therefore, no legal validity. All action, however, taken under the Ordinance was validated by the Act and by its S. 17 "all acts done, notifications issued, authorisations, inquiries made, duties assigned, notices served, or any action taken with respect to or on account of eradication of kans during the period commencing October 20, 1949 and ending with the date of the commencement of this Act etc. shall be as valid and operative as if they had been done, issued, made, assigned, served or taken in accordance with the law." The validity of this provision which was upheld by the Judicial Commissioner is not challenged before us and therefore notwithstanding that the notifications which will be referred to later were issued anterior to the enactment of the Act, that circumstance is immaterial for considering their effectiveness.;