- (1.) Admittedly, the land bearing Survey No. 265 to the extent of I I acres 4 gunthas in Sangarnner Badurk Village, Ahmednagar District which belonged to the State government was allotted to first respondent, a tribal, in June 1960. The appellant had entered into an agreement with the tribal-allottee on 27/6/1968 initially to purchase 5 acres of land and later for the entire extent and sought permission for alienation from the Collector. Both the Collector and the Commissioner had refused to grant him the permission. The appellant approached the High court by way of a writ petition. The High court rejected the writ petition summarily. Thus this appeal by special leave.
(2.) Shri Ganpule, learned Senior Counsel for the appellant, contended that the first respondent being a tribal was unable to cultivate the lands and so lawfully entered into the agreement to sell the lands for valuable consideration, subject to permission of the Collector. The District Collector was in error in refusing permission for alienation as the Bombay Revenue Code gives such a power. The appellant was inducted into possession of the land pursuant to the agreement and he remained in possession and is entitled to retain the same under Section 53-A of the Transfer of Property Act, 1882. The authorities were not justified in refusing permission for alienation. The appellant had improved the lands and, therefore, is entitled to compensation for the improvements he had effected.
(3.) The question involved bears wider constitutional dimension. Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Nation, in his Socialism of My Conception, at pp. 82- 83 stated that: "Every human being has a right to live and, therefore, to find the wherewithal to feed himself and, where necessary, to clothe and house himself. In a well-ordered society the securing of one's livelihood should 552 be, and is found to be, the easiest thing in the world. Indeed, the test of orderliness in a country is not the number of millionaires it owns, but the absence of starvation among its masses. Working for economic equality means abolishing the eternal conflict between capital and labour. It means the levelling down of the few rich in whose hands is concentrated the bulk of the nation's wealth on the one hand, and the levelling up of the semi- starved, naked millions on the other. A violent and bloody revolution is a certainty one day, unless there is a voluntary abdication of riches and the power that riches give and sharing them for the common good. "rabindranath Tagore poetically portrayed the plight of a poor farmer thus: "Bowed by the weight of centuries he leans, Upon his hoe and gazes on the ground, The emptiness of ages on his face, And on his back the burden of the world. "as quoted by B. K. Roy in his Socio-Politicul Views of Vivekananda, at p. 52, Swami Vivekananda, speaking on social and spiritual justice, has said: "I do not believe in a God who cannot give me bread here, giving me eternal bliss in heaven. Pooh: India is to be raised, the poor are to be fed, education is to be spread, and the evil of priestcraft is to be removed. . more bread, more opportunity for everybody. . "it is well to remember what Vivekananda said about the poor: "Feel, my children, feel, feel for the poor, the ignorant, the downtrodden, feel till the heart stops, the brain reels and you think you will go mad. . "the lament of a Scheduled Caste parent of their plight is pithily brought home to his son thus: "Hush, my child; don't cry, my treasure, Weeping is in vain, For the enemy will never Understand your pain. For the ocean has its limits Prisons have their walls around, But our suffering and torment Have no limit and no bound. ";