Lakshman Sahana vs Gopal Chakaraborty and others

The petition is by a pre-emptee who may have no ground to resist the pre-emption proceedings.

The opposite party nos.1 and 2 herein filed a petition under Section 8 of the West Bengal Land Reforms Act, 1955 as co-sharers. The opposite party nos. 3 to 16 herein were needlessly impleaded as the other co-sharers. Upon the petition being dismissed for default, the opposite party nos.1 and 2 faced difficulty in effecting service on the proforma respondents and one or two of them may even have died. At the request of the opposite party nos.1 and 2 herein, the trial court deleted the names of the proforma respondents from the array of parties as they were unnecessarily impleaded.

The pre-emptee, who now remains the sole respondent in the proceedings, seeks to take advantage of the confusion that was created on behalf of the opposite party nos.1 and 2 to wriggle out of what may be an uncomfortable position. The petitioning preemptee says that no order could have been passed for deleting the names of the proforma parties without serving them.

The order impugned does not call for any interference as the proforma respondents were neither necessary nor proper parties to the action and their names have been appropriately deleted. The trial court is requested to ensure that the application for restoring the petition under Section 8 of the said Act is disposed of in accordance with law within four weeks of the receipt of a copy of this order.

C.O. 4619 of 2016 is disposed of without any order as to costs.