Chandrachud, C. J. - (1.) By these writ petitions filed under Article 32 of the Constitution, the petitioners challenge the constitutional validity of the Jammu and Kashmir Agrarian Reforms Act, 17 of 1976, on the ground that the Act violates the provisions of Articles 14, 19 and 31 of the Constitution. This challenge is met by the State of Jammu and Kashmir with the short answer that the impugned Act being a measure of agrarian reform, Article 31A of the Constitution precludes a challenge to its validity on the ground that it violates the provisions contained in Articles 14, 19 and 31.
(2.) The petitioners are mostly small land-holders owning agricultural lands in the State of Jammu and Kashmir. The Government of Jammu and Kashmir introduced several land reforms in the State, beginning with Tenancy Act VII of 1948. Jagirs and Muafis were abolished under that Act as a result of which approximately 9000 owners of agricultural lands lost their proprietary interest in about 4.5 lakh acres of land. The State Legislature thereafter passed the Tenancy (Amendment) Act VII of 1948, the Tenancy (Amendment) Act of 1950, the Big Landed Estates Abolition Act of 1950, the Tenancy (Amendment) Acts of 1955, 1962 and 1965, the J. and K. Tenancy (Stay of Ejectment) Proceedings Act 1966, the Agrarian Reforms Act of 1972 and finally the impugned Act, 17 of 1976. The last named Act received the assent of the Governor on August 21, 1976. It was amended by the Amendment Act of 1978 which received the assent of the Governor on April 7, 1978.
(3.) We will presently explain in brief the nature of the provisions of the impugned Act but, before we do so, it will be useful to acquaint oneself with the various steps which the Government of Jammu and Kashmir took in the direction of land reforms, by passing the Acts to which we have referred earlier. After abolishing the Jagirs and Muafis by the Tenancy Act of 1948, restrictions were placed on the right of the landlord to eject the tenant, by the Tenancy (Amendment) Act of 1948. The landlord was, however, given the right to resume the land from his tenant if he required it bona fide for personal cultivation subject to a ceiling on his right of resumption. The Big Landed Estates Abolitions Act of 1950 was quite a revolutionary piece of legislation in the context of those times. A ceiling was placed by that Act on the holding of properties at 182 Kanals which comes roughly to 23 acres. The land in excess of the ceiling was expropriated without the payment of any compensation and the tiller of the soil became the owner of the excess land. By subsequent legislations, tenants were given protection in the matter of rents, certain clauses of non-occupancy tenants came to be regarded as protected tenants and landlords were given a further opportunity for making applications for the resumption of land. Thousands of applications were filed by the landlords under the provisions of the Tenancy Amendment Act of 1965 for resumption of lands from tenants but, later further proceedings in those applications were stayed. The Janki Wazir Committee pointed out anomalies in the various measures taken by the State Legislature by way of land reforms and it made recommendations in order to remove the inequities from which the land reforms legislation undertaken by the State suffered. The State Government constituted a Land Commission under the Chairmanship of the then Revenue Minister Syed Mir Kasim in 1963 to examine the Wazir Committee's Report. In 1967, the State Government appointed another Commission of Inquiry, with Shri P. B. Gajendragadkar, retired Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, as its Chairman. The Gajendragadkar Commission made various recommendations by its Report dated December 1968. It also pointed out the defects from which the Land Legislation in the State of Jammu and Kashmir suffered and suggested ways and means for removing them. This long and empirical process ultimately culminated in the enactment of the Act of 1976 which is impugned in these proceedings.;