Ranjit Singh vs Financial Commissioner, Revenue and Others

K. Kannan, J.—The writ petition involves a dispute between two private individuals clamoring for rights of property which was dealt with as surplus under Punjab Land Reforms Act, 1972 (For short ''the Act''). The rival claimants before authority were respectively a person who had been an allotted of the property treated as surplus under the Land Reforms Act and the person who claimed as purchaser from the original big land owner Baljinder Singh whose land holding was declared as being in surplus of the ceiling limit. After several rounds of litigation the Financial Commissioner (Irrigation & Power), Punjab passed the impugned order upholding the claim of the allotted of the surplus land on the ground that the rival contender Ranjit Singh was not a bona fide purchaser and the original big land owner Baljinder Singh had created a fraudulent sale only with an intent to defeat the provisions of the Act knowing fully well that he was attracted to the provisions of the Act. In so holding, the Commissioner was in agreement with the view taken by the Collector that allotment of property to one Joginder Singh did not suffer from any infirmity.

To certain more facts: The property had been declared as surplus on 25.6.1976. The property had been actually delivered on 12.12.1977, to the allotted and one Piara Singh who was cultivating the land and who was a lessee at the time did not raise any objection. The allotted had also made the first installment of the price determined by the Government. The Financial Commissioner, at the time of passing of the order, had still found that the original land owner acquired some lands by way of inheritance and decree of civil Court and under such circumstances the Commissioner directed that Collector to re-determine afresh the surplus area of original land owner Baljinder Singh. The Collector whose order was the subject of revision to the Commissioner had actually taken note of the fact that the land reforms had prescribed an appointed day u/s 3(1) as 24.1.1971 and any transfer of property made subsequent to the appointed day and before commencement of the Act, namely, 2.4.1973, when it was published in the