- (1.) BY means of this writ petition, the petitioner-State has prayed for quashing the impugned order dated 14-10-1993, passed by the respondent no. 1 in Ceil ing Appeal No. 25 of 1992-93, Guru Bux Singh and another Vs. State of U. P. whereby the learned Commissioner has allowed Appeal No. 25 of 1992-93 and Appeal No. 28 of 1992-93 whereby the order of the Prescribed Authority dated 27-5-1993 was modified to the extent that the land purchased by the respond ent nos. 2 and 3 be not included in the Ceiling proceedings.
(2.) RELEVANT facts giving rise to this writ petition are that before the Pre scribed Authority/additional District Mag istrate, Nainital Ceiling Case No. 51/11 of 1992-93 was filed by the State and the proceedings were initiated as the land of Khata holder Barkat Singh was affected. In earlier ceiling proceedings, irrigated land in area of 0. 445 hectare belonging to landholder Barkat Singh was declared as surplus vacant land. Barkat Singh/ Gurubux Singh preferred appeal before the Commissioner Kumaun, Nainital. The appeal preferred by Gurubux was de cided by Additional Commissioner on 3-8-92 and the case was remanded with the direction that the concerned parties be served with notice under Section 10 (2) and Rule 8 of the Act. The Pre scribed Authority after remand of the case decided the matter afresh vide or der dated 17-11-1992 thereby land measuring 2. 445 was declared as surplus vacant land. Khata holder Gurubux Singh filed appeal before the Commis sioner, Kumaun which was decided on 20- 2-1993 and the case was again re manded with the direction that the con cerned parties be heard after serving them notice under Section 10 (2) of the Act and the case be decided afresh. The Prescribed Authority after affording op portunity of hearing to the appellants/ob jectors proceeded with the case. Ulti mately, the Prescribed Authority rejected the objections filed by the objectors in cluding Guru Bux Singh and Santosh Singh and declared irrigated land meas uring 2. 445 hectare as surplus land. Ag grieved by the said order dated 27-5- 1993 passed by the Prescribed Author ity, respondent nos. 2 and 3 preferred appeal before the Commissioner which was registered as Ceiling Appeal No. 25 of 1992- 93. The learned Commissioner after hearing both the parties and perus ing the material on record allowed the appeal and the impugned order dated 27-5-1993 was modified to the extent that the land purchased by respondent nos. 2 and 3 be not included in the ceil ing proceedings and passed the order dated 14-10-1993, which gave rise to the present writ petition. I have heard learned counsel for the parties and perused the entire mate rial on record including the impugned or der dated 14-10-1993 passed by the re spondent no. 1. A perusal of the record shows that admittedly respondent nos. 2 and 3 are the grandsons of Barkat Singh and they do not fall in the definition of family. The inclusion of disputed land purchased by the respondent nos. 2 and 3 independ ently does not appear to be justified. It has not been disputed that at the time of purchase of land by them, both the re spondent nos. 2 and 3 were major. The learned Commissioner has considered all the aspect of the case. It was observed by him that ceiling proceeding was initi ated against Barkat Singh alone. The learned Commissioner has given a con crete finding that there is no evidence to the effect that price of the land purchased by respondent nos. 2 and 3 was borne by any body else. A perusal of the record also shows that both Guru Bux Singh and Santosh Singh are living separately. Considering all these facts and circum stances, the learned Commissioner has modified the order dated 27-5-1993 passed by the Prescribed Authority. The finding recorded by the learned Commis sioner to the effect that Guru Bux Singh and Santosh Singh have purchased the land independently is a finding of fact, which cannot be examined in exercise of writ jurisdiction, unless any manifest er ror apparent on the face of record is shown. Only it has to be examined whether the learned Commissioner has committed a manifest error of law by excluding the land from ceiling area of the petitioner.
(3.) THE learned counsel for the re spondent nos. 2 and 3 vehemently sub mitted that in the present case, the land was purchased and held by major sons of tenure holder, hence that cannot be declared surplus under the U. P Imposi tion of Ceiling on Land Holdings Act, 1961. In support of his contention, the learned counsel for the respondents has placed reliance on a Division Bench Judgment of the Allahabad High Court in the case of "mohammad Abbas Vs. State of U. P. and others" (1979, A. W. C. , Page 23) wherein it has been held that "if land is held by the major sons of the tenure-holder, it is neither to be included in the holding of the tenure holder nor can it be included in the land sought to be declared surplus. " In para no. 4 it has been observed that "since land held by the major sons of the tenure-holder was not land which would have been de clared surplus under the Act, the transfer of that land could not be ignored in de termining the ceiling area applicable to the tenure holder although the land was transferred after the 24th day of January 1971. I have gone through the case-law and I am in full agreement with the view taken by the Allahabad High Court. As stated earlier, the fact that the respond ent nos. 2 and 3 were major at the time of purchase of land by them. In the facts and circumstances of ' the case and having gone through the entire record, I find that the impugned or der dated 14-10-1993 passed by the learned Commissioner does not suffer from any manifest error, illegality, perver sity or infirmity. The impugned order dated 14-10-1993 does not call for any. interference by this Court. The writ peti tion is liable to be dismissed.;