- (1.) CIVIL Rule No. 169 (W) of 1961 along with other sixteen Rules were directed to be heard together by D. Basu, J. Of them, Civil Rules No. 158 (W) to 160 (W) of 1962 were not pressed at the hearing and were discharged. I am now concerned with civil Rule No. 169 (W) of 1961 and other thirteen Rules.
(2.) THESE Rules were ordered to be heard together because, it was alleged, a common point of law arose in all these Rules. That point was that the petitioners were raiyats and when the west Bengal Estates Acquisition Act first came into operation (excepting chapter VI thereof) they began to hold their respective plots of raiyati land under the State, as if the State had been the intermediary ; thereafter when chapter VI of the West Bengal Estates acquisition Act was brought into operation, there was no estate to vest in the State Government and the status gained by the raiyats, prior to the enforcement of Chapter VI of the Act could not be in any way interfered with. Reliance was placed on the provisions of section 5 (c) of the West bengal Estates Acquisition Act and on certain observations in a judgment of the Supreme Court in (1) K. Kunhikoman v. State of Kerala, (A. I. R. 1962 S. C. 723) in support of the point. Strangely, enough, the point was expressly taken in any of the petitions excepting that a somewhat clumsy attempt was made to spell out the point from the grounds taken in some of the petitions.
(3.) SINCE the point has been raised, I need decide the point. The West Bengal Estates Acquisition Act, as the preamble shows, is an Act to provide for the State acquisition of estates, of rights of intermediaries therein and of certain rights of raiyats and under-raiyats and of the right of certain other persons in lands comprised in estates. Chapter vi of the Act deals with acquisition of interests of raiyats and under-raiyats. Under the provisions of section 4 of the act, all estates and the rights of every intermediary in each of such estate (excepting the interest of raiyats and under-raiyats) vested in the State government on April 15, 1955. Chapter vi of the Act, however, was not brought into operation until about a year later. The said Chapter came into operation in all districts of West Bengal with effect from April 10, 1956. Between April 15, 1955 and April 10, 1956, every raiyat, holding any land under an intermediary, held the same directly under the State, as if the State had been the intermediary, under the provisions of section 5 (c) of the Act, which is quoted below: "upon the due publication of a notification under section 4, on and from the date of vesting (a ). (aa ). (b ). (c) every non-agricultural tenant holding any land under an intermediary, and until the provisions of Chapter VI are given effect to, every raiyat holding any land under an intermediary shall hold the same directly under the State, as if the State had been the intermediary and on the same terms and conditions as immediately before the date of vesting. (d ). What was to happen to raiyats and under-raiyats, after Chapter VI of the west Bengal Estates Acquisition Act was brought into operation, by a notification under section 49, appears from section 52 of the Act, which is set out below: "on the issue of a notification under section 49, the provision of chapters II, III, V and VII shall, with such modification as may be necessary, apply mutatis mutandis to raiyats and under-raiyats as if such raiyats and under-raiyats were intermediaries and the land held by them were estates and a person holding under a raiyat or an under-raiyat were a raiyat for the purposes of clauses (c) and (d) of section 5. ";