- (1.) THE petitioners in these eight applications under article 227 of the Constitution, mohanlal Jain and Narayan Prosad Dutta, constituted a partnership firm, which held a license for cultivating Ganja. The petitioners took lease of 50 acres of land at Dilforebagh in the district of Murshidabad from one Durgarani Dutta for the cultivation of Ganja by a registered deed of lease, dated July 24, 1954. The lease was for a period of three years, commencing from the 1st day of Baisakh 1361 B. S. The deed of lease provided that the lessees could, at their option, at the end of one term, have the lease renewed for a further term of three years.
(2.) THE lessees being under raiyats, their interest in the lands vested in the State on the 1st Baisakh 1363 B. S. after Chapter VI of the West Bengal estates Acquisition Act, 1953, had come into force by virtue of a notification under section 49 of the Act. The lessees did not exercise their option of having the lease renewed under the terms of the deed on the expiry of the period of three years; nor had they, on the vesting of their interest in the state, exercised their choice of retention of lands within permissible limits under sub-section (1) of section 6 of the West Bengal Estates Acquisition Act.
(3.) IT appears that, during the revisional settlement operations, the Settlement authorities for reasons, not very clear from the records, split up the holding of 50 acres into 8 separate holdings of smaller areas and recorded them in 8 separate Khatians. The Government started 16 certificate proceedings under the public Demands Recovery Act against the petitioners, eight of them being for arrears of rent and cesses due for the year 1363 B. S. and the remaining 8 for such arrears for the period 1364 to Aswin 1367 B. S. We are not, however, concerned here with the fate of the eight certificates for the year 1363 B. S. The present applications arise out of the other eight certificates, which cover the period from Baisakh 1364 B. S. to Aswin, 1367 B. S.;