Binayak Nath Banerjee, J. - (1.) The original petitioner was one Narendra Nath Dutta. He is now dead and has been substituted by his heirs and legal representatives, the present petitioners. The original petitioner came to this Court with a case hereinafter stated in brief. Out of agricultural land held by him, he sold an area of 1.57 acres to his daughter, Achalalakshmi Dey, by a registered conveyance dated March 22, 1956. He also transferred another area to his sons, Narayan Chandra Dutta and Sambhudeb Dutta, by a registered conveyance dated February 25, 1957. Thereafter, the petitioner submitted his option for reiention of land in form B and thereby elected to retain 16.73 acres of agricultural land, 5.45 acres of non-agricultural land and 38/7/16 acres of homestead land, in all 22.56/7/16 acres.
(2.) The transfers made by the original petitioner to his sons and daughter were held to be hit by section 5A(7) of the West Bengal Estates Acquisition Act and so far as the transfer made in favour of his sons was concerned, the following order was passed on September 8, 1958, under section 5A of the Act: Sri Narendra Nath Dutta, s/o Late Radha Ballav Dutta, the vendor and Sri Narayan Chandra Dutta and Sri Sambhudeb Dutta, the vendees appeared and produced the regd. deed No. 1671 dated 25.2.57. The vendees are the sons of the vendor. Though the transfer was made within the prohibited degree of relationship with an invariable intention to keep inflated amount of lands in his favour but it was made after the date of vesting. As such it seems to be beyond the scope of section 5A of the E.A. Act. On the date of vesting the transferred lands (as per schedule enclosed) were for the all purpose of Shri Narendra Nath Dutta, the vendor. So these lands should be included in calculating his ceiling". So far as transfer in favour of the daughter is concerned, the following order, dated August 10,1957, was passed ; "The transferor is a big raiyat and possesses 31.89 acres of 1 and (as shown in the big raiyat statements), after transferring 1.57 acres of land to his daughter, the transferee, against a registered deed executed on 22.3.56. So there is prima facie reasons to believe that the transfer has been made with the object of retaining land in excess of ceiling. Hence the transfer is not bonafide under section 5A(2) of W.B.E.A. Act and the transfer of all the plots stands cancelled from the date on which it was made, as if from 22nd March 1956". The last order was not annexed either to the petition or to the affidavit-in-opposition. Mr. Bankim Chandra Dutt, learned Additional Government Pleader, produced the last order from the records and I have made use of that order in this judgment, with the knowledge of the learned Advocate for the petitioner.
(3.) The B option form submitted by the original petitioner was considered in big raiyati case No. 72 of 1958. It is stated in paragraph 3 of the affidavit-in-opposition that the original petitioner did not appear before the authority at that stage. Nevertheless he was allowed to retain 23.73 acres of agricultural land, 26 acres of non-agricultural land aid 10 acres of homestead land.;