M.P.Mehrotra, J. - (1.) This petition arises out of the proceedings under the U. P. Imposition of Ceiling on Land Holdings Act, 1960.
(2.) The notice under Section 10 (21 was issued to the petitioner and he filed objections. The objections were decided by the prescribed Authority. Thereafter an appeal was filed and the Additional District Judge, Dehra Dun heard and decided the appeal. The same was dismissed. Now, the petitioner has come up in the instant petition and in support thereof I have heard Shri Prakash Gupta, learned counsel for the petitioner. Counsel raised three contentions before me. Firstly, he contended that the Prescribed Authority and the appellate court were in error in not treating the petitioners holding as beyond the ambit of the ceiling law. Dehra Dun district was formerly a part of the Meerut Division but by the U.P. Governments Notification No. 5-3 (1)/1974 (327), published in U. P. Gazette Extraordinary dated 4-6-1975, the said district was made a part of the Garhwal Division. The Notification has been quoted in the judgment of the Appellate court and for the facility of reference, it is reproduced below "In exercise of the powers u/s 11 of the U. P. Land Reforms Act, 1901 (U.P. Act 3 of 1901). read with Section 2 of the U. P. General Clauses Act, 1904, (U. P. Act 1 of 1904) the Governor is pleased to alter with effect from the date of publication of this notification in the Gazette, the limits at Meerut and Garhwal Divisions by including Dehra Dun district within the jurisdiction of Garhwal Division and excluding the said district from the Meerut Division, provided nothing in this notification shall affect any legal proceedings already commenced or pending in any court which has had to exercise the jurisdiction in respect of the said district." The earlier ceiling proceedings against the petitioner stood concluded with the prescribed Authoritys order dated 31st Dec. 1974, and, therefore, on the said date i. e. 4th June, 1975, no proceedings were pending and the learned counsel has emphasised that the Appellate court was not correct in treating the said proceedings as pending on 4th June, 1975. This argument seems to me to be correct. However, it has seemed to me that the petitioner was not entitled to claim that his holding situated in the Dehra Dun district should be deemed to have ceased to be attracted to the ceiling law in view of the aforesaid Notification dated 4th June, 1975 whereby the said district was made a part of the Garhwal Division. In this connection a reference to Section l of the Act has to be made. This Act was made applicable to the whole of Uttar Pradesh by sub-sec. (2) of Section 1. By sub-sec. (3) it was laid down:- "It shall come into force at once except in the areas mentioned in Section 2, where it shall come into force from such date and in such manner as may be notified under that section, .and different dates may be appointed for different area".
(3.) It will be seen that in clause (iii) of Section 2 only the pargana of Jaunsar-Bawar in the Dehra Dun district was mentioned. In other words, in respect of other parts of the Dehra Dun district, the Act undoubtedly came into force since its inception. As I read Sections 1 and 2 together, it seems to me that the legislative intention was clear that in respect of the areas mentioned in the different clauses of Section 2, the Act was to be extended by subsequent notifications of the State Govt. However, it was not the intention that in respect of those areas where the Act already stood applied, the applicability was to cease by virtue of any notification issued not under the Ceiling law but under the Land Revenue Act whereby the reshuffling might be done in respect of different divisions. It will be seen that the aforesaid notification dated 4th June, 1975, was issued under the U. P. Land Revenue Act and it had nothing to do with the ceiling law. In this view of the matter, I hold that the said notification in no way affected the ceiling law which continued to apply to the rest of the district of Dehra Dun except the pargana of Jaunsar-Bawar which was specifically mentioned in cl. (iii) of Section 2. The Act could be applied to the said pargana of Jaunsar-Bawar only when the State Government issues the notification under Section 2 of the Ceiling Act but we are not concerned with the said question.;