- (1.) THIS Full Bench has been constituted in order to resolve the conflict that has arisen in this Court, as to whether the provisions of the Punjab Security of Land tenures (Amendment and Validation) Act, 1962 (Act No. 14 of 1962) are retrospective or prospective? One set of decisions has given retrospec-tivity to all the provisions of this Act including Section 19-B; whereas the other set of decisions has merely given Section 19-B, as amended by this Act, a prospective effect.
(2.) IN Bhalle Ram v. State of Punjab, 1962-64 Pun LR 331, it was decided bv me that transfers made before the 30th of July, 1958, of the surplus area by a landowner cannot be ignored vis-avis the transferee; and such transfer has to be taken into consideration, so far as the transferee is concerned, to find out whether the land with the transferee is in excess of the permissible area after taking into consideration the land already held by him. In other words, after adding the land obtained by the transfer to the land already held by the transferee, it has to be determined under Section 19-B, whether there is any surplus land in the hands of the transferee.
(3.) IN the wake of Bhalle Ram's decision, 1962-64 Pun LR 331 the Legislature stepped in and enacted the Punjab Security of Land Tenures (Amendment and validation) Act, 1962 (Act No. 14 of 1962 ). The Letters Patent Bench reversed bhalle Ram's decision 1962-64 Pun LR 331 in view of the amendment. The decision of the Letters Patent Bench is reported as State of Punjab v. Bhalle Ram 1963 P. L. J. 65. This decision of the Letters Patent Bench did not take into consideration the provisions of Section 1 (2) of Act No. 14 of 1962, according to which Section 19-B, as amended, was to take effect from the 30th of July, 1958. It was also not urged before the Letters Patent Bench that Bhalle Ram's decision 1962-64 Pun LR 331 could not be reversed because Section 19-B was not retrospective. In short, the question of retrospectivity of Section 19-B was not considered by the Letters Patent Bench. The decisions, which are in line with the decision of the Letters Patent Bench in Bhalle Ram's case, 1963 Pun LJ 65 are:-- (1) Bhagat Gobind Singh v. Punjab State, 1963-65 PLR 105 = 1963 Cur lj 22 = (AIR 1963 Punj 319); (2) State of Punjab v. Shamsher Singh, 1966-68 Pun LR 41; (3) Hans Raj v. State of Punjab, 1967 Cur LJ 804 (P and H ).;