Satish Chandra, J. - (1.) THIS writ petition arises out of proceedings under the UP Imposition of Ceiling on Land Holdings Act, 1961, (hereinafter referred to as the Act). It seeks to quash an order of remand.
(2.) PETITIONER No. 1 is a Public Limited Company. It owns and operates a sugar factory at Baheri in the district of Bareilly. It has an extensive farm where it cultivates sugarcane which, it is alleged, is consumed in its own factory. After the abolition of zamindari, the Petitioner company became the bhumidhar of the farm at Mudiya and sirdar of the farms at Kachcha and Bhawanipur. The total area of these farms is 2,129 acres. It appears that in response to the general notice issued Under Section 9(1) of the Act, the Petitioner company did not submit the required statement. On 8 -12 -1961, a notice Under Section 10(2) of the Act was served on the Petitioner. The Petitioner applied for extension of time for filing objections and the Prescribed Authority allowed an extension of fifteen days. On 9 -1 -1962 the company filed its objection. In January 1962 some evidence was recorded by the Prescribed Authority, but thereafter the proceedings were stayed under an interim order granted by this Court during the pendency of a writ petition filed by the Petitioner company, questioning the constitutional vires of the Act. On the dismissal of the writ petition on 9 -9 -1963, the Prescribed Authority revived the proceedings and fixed 16 -3 -1964 for further hearing. On this date the Petitioner filed another set of objections. One objection was that an area of 112 bighas and 17 biswas of village Dhaura Khera exclusively belonged to Sri J.C. Parik (Petitioner No. 2 here) and not to the company. On 31 - -3 -1964 Sri Parik also filed an objection claiming title to the said holding. On 13 -4 -1964 the Petitioner company filed an application indicating its choice in the matter of determining the ceiling area as well as the exempted area. The Petitioner company filed applications on 14 -4 -1964 and 22 -4 -1964 claiming certain other exemptions. The Petitioner claimed that a total area of 1736.53 acres be exempted under various heads. The Prescribed Authority decided the matter by its order dated 4 -5 -1964. It did not accept the Petitioner's claim in its entirety, but exempted an area of 496 acres only. It accepted the claim that the holding in village Dhaura Khera belonged to Sri J.C. Parik and not to the Petitioner company. The Petitioner as well as the State felt aggrieved at the order of the Prescribed Authority. Both went up in appeal. Both the appeals have been decided by a common judgment dated 1 -6 -1966. The learned Civil Judge has set aside the judgment of the Prescribed Authority and has remanded the matter back to it with certain directions.
(3.) THE Appellate Authority has taken the view that the Prescribed Authority was not competent to entertain an objection filed after the expiry of the period specified in the notice issued Under Section 10 of the Act. It held that the objections filed on 18 -3 -1964 and subsequently were not in the nature of particulars in support of the objections already filed on 9 -1 -1962 and were barred by time. It held that the time for filing objections has been fixed by the statute itself Under Section 10(2) and hence it could not be extended by the Prescribed Authority because Section 148, Code of Civil Procedure will be inapplicable. It also held that the Prescribed Authority had extended the time once, but the Petitioner company did not pray for any further extension of time to file subsidiary objections and for this reason also the Prescribed Authority had no jurisdiction to entertain the subsequent objection. I am unable to endorse this view of the learned Civil Judge. Section 10(2) of the Act does not prescribe any limit of time within which an objection may be filed. It leaves to the Prescribed Authority to fix the time limit in the notice that it will issue. It only provides a safeguard for the benefit of the tenure holder by providing that the time so fixed shall not be less than ten days from the date of the service of the notice. This provision has left to the will of the Prescribed Authority to fix any period of time in excess of ten days. The time within which an objection may be filed is to be fixed by the Prescribed Authority. The Prescribed Authority has Under Section 37 of the Act all the powers and privileges of a Civil Court while conducting these proceedings. Section 148 of the Code of Civil Procedure will be applicable and the Prescribed Authority will have jurisdiction to;