Harinderjit Singh and Others vs State of Uttaranchal and Others

Hon''ble Rajesh Tandon, J.—The present writ petition has been filed challenging the order passed by the District Magistrate, Udham Singh Nagar dated 15.06.2003. By the order dated 15.06.2003 the District Magistrate has passed the order that transfer made on. 24.01.1971 shall be void and ineffective.

I have heard Sri Sudhir Singh counsel for the Petitioner as well as Sri S.S. Adhikari, Standing Counsel for the Respondents. Both the parties agreed that the matter can be disposed of at the admission stage.

The brief facts of the case are that the proceedings u/s 10(2) of U.P. Imposition of Ceiling on Land holdings Act, were initiated and the matter went up to the High Court in Writ petitions No. 2825 of 1977 and No. 3402 of 1977. The High Court has remanded the matter to the appellate Authority. As the result of the orders passed by Allahabad High Court in Ceiling Appeal No. 1308 of 1996 became revived is pending for disposal on merits.

The counsel for the Petitioner has stated at the Bar that since the matter has been remanded to the appellate authority, the appellate authority has not proceeded for hearing of the case and the appeal is lying as it is. As will appear from the grounds of writ petition, which has been filed today the Petitioner, has filed an appeal u/s 13 of U.P. Imposition of Ceiling on Land Holdings Act, against the order passed in Ceiling Case No. 51/96 of 1975-76 against the order of the pre-scribed Authority and the S.D.Q. Khatima declaring 63.64 hac. Has surplus land. The Ceiling appeal has not yet become final and in the mean time the District Magistrate has passed the following order:

Since, the appeal is pending since 1976 and after the remand of the case, the same has again been revived. The District Judge is directed to dispose of the appeal No. 1308 of 1976 expeditiously. The Petitioner shall file an application before the District Judge regarding the disposal of the appeal. The Petitioner shall also file an application for stay of the order passed by the District Magistrate on 15.06.2003 corrected on application dt. 17.9.2003.

Without expressing any opinion on the merits of the order, in the event of filing such an application by the Petitioner the same shall be disposed of by the learned Judge after considering the same on merits and hearing both the parties in accordance with law. He shall also fix suitable date for hearing of the appeal.

For the period of ten days only the operation of the order dated 15.06.2003 shall remain in abeyance.

With these observations the writ petition is disposed of corrected on the application dt. 17.09.2003.