AMTHIBAI SMT WD O JESANGBHAI NATHUBHAI Vs. PATEL SHANKERBHAI PURUSHOTTAMDAS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This petition at the instance of a widow-land lady is directed against the order of the Gujarat Revenue Tribunal in Revision Application No. TEN. B. A. 518/7 6/03/1977 reversing the concurrent findings by the subordinate authorities that the respondent was not the tenant of four pieces of land of S. Nos. 117 278 279 and 375 situate within the revenue limits of village Vijapurda in Chanasma taluka of the Mehsana district. The sole ground on which the subordinate authorities namely the Agricultural Lands Tribunal and the Deputy Collector had held against the respondent that he was not the tenant was that he happened to be the uncle-in-law of the widow-landlady and therefore a member of the family with the result that he was not entitled to claim the status of a tenant within the meaning of sec. 4 of the Bombay Tenancy & Agricultural Lands Act 1948 (hereinafter referred to as the said Act). It is this order of the Tribunal which is the subject matter of the present petition.

(2.) No reply affidavit has been filed on behalf of the respondent.

(3.) The only question which arises and which has been agitated on behalf of the petitioner is that the Revenue Tribunal was clearly in error in reversing the conclusion of the subordinate authorities that the respondent was not a tenant though admittedly he happened to be the uncle-in-law of the petitioner-landlady. The material part of sec. 4 which is relevant for our purposes is sec. 4 (a) which reads as under: