Summary
The respondent held 28.4 acres of land and, therefore, filed a return under Section 85(a) of the Kerala Land Re- forms Act, 1964. In the return, he showed his family as consisting of himself, his wife and 3 children. Section 84 of the Act provided that all voluntary transfers effected after publication of the Kerala Land Reforms Bill, 1963, except certain transfers which were excepted shall be deemed to be transfers calculated to defeat the provisions of the Act and invalid. The Act was amended by Act 35 of 1969' which came into force on 1-1-1970. By virtue of the said amendment, 1-1-1970 was declared as the notified date.
Section 83 provides that with effect from the notified date no person shall be entitled to own, hold or to possess land in excess of certain acres of land. Section 85(1) provides that any person holding land in excess on notified date shall surrender the excess. Section 85 and 85A are the sections laying down the procedure for surrender of the excess land. Section 86 provides that on determination of the excess land under section 85 the same will vest in the State. On 1-1-1970, the respondent had one major child and two minor children. One minor child attained the age: of majority in 1971 and another attained majority in 1973. In March, 1973, 3 gift deeds were executed one in favour of each one of the children. The respondent was called upon to hand over the excess land on. the ground that the transfers executed after 1-1-1970 in favour of the children who were minor on 1-1-1970 will be ignored and the land will be treated as land owned by the respondent. The respondent filed his objections and contended that he and his wife were the only members of the family and that if the transfers were excepted he did not hold land in excess of the ceiling.The Land Board came to the conclusion that out of the 28.4 acres of land held by respondents 3.9 acres were exempted under section 81 and that the land measuring 3.8 acres gifted to the major child was a valid gift and in addition the respondent was entitled to hold 12 acres of land. He came to the conclusion that the respondent was holding excess land to the extent of 8.78 acres. The respondents filed a Revision Petition in the High Court which allowed the same.In an appeal by Special Leave the respondent contended: (1) Section 83 is relevant only for fixing ceiling. It does not say that a person or a family loses his title on the notified date.(2) Donees were not minors on the date of gift. That would not constitute the members of the family.961 (3) Gifts in the present case are saved by the last exception to section 84 which permit- ted gifts to any person out of natural love and affection or, at any rate, they are saved by Amendment Act 17 of 1972 by which the exception to Section 84 was made effective from 16-8-1968, in favour of transfers by way of gifts in favour of son or daughter or other near relations.(4) Sections 85 & 85A lay down the proce- dure' for surrendering the excess land.Section 86 vests the excess land in the State.The vesting takes place after the procedure under sections 85 and 85A is over and till then the respondent was the legal owner and could have and in fact validly gifted the land in question.The appellants contended: (1) The gifts made after 1-1-1970 were not saved by exception to section 84.(2) The view taken by the Single Judge has been over-ruled by a Division Bench and Full Bench of the same High Court.Allowing the appeal,HELD: (1,) The provisions of the Act dearly establish the dominant legislative intent of the imposition of the ceiling on laud holdings and the consequential obligation to surrender laud owned or hold in excess of the ceiling area on the notified date, namely, 1-1-1970.Section 84 was enacted because the Legislature anticipated transfers with a view to. circum- vent the provisions of law. Transfers between 15-8-1963 and 1-1-1970' will be valid if within the exceptions provided by section 84.Transfers made after 1-1-1970 even of the excepted varieties are to be ignored and obligation to surrender the excess land on 1-1-70 cannot be excepted by voluntary transfers made subsequent to.the notified date. [964 G-H, 965 C-D](2) Notified date is 1-1-1970. That is the relevant date for fixing ceiling. Subse- quent changes in the constitution of family are irrelevant- [965 H]See the full content of this document
Extract
State Of Kerala And Ors. VS. K.A. Gangadharan
PETITIONER: STATE OF KERALA AND ORS.Vs.RESPONDENT: K.A. GANGADHARANDATE OF JUDGMENT27/10/1976BENCH: RAY, A.N. (CJ)BENCH: RAY, A.N. (CJ)BEG, M. HAMEEDULLAHSINGH, JASWANTCITATION: 1977 AIR 311 1977 SCR (1) 960 1977 SCC (1) 208CITATOR INFO : D 1979 SC1573 (17,32,65)ACT: Kerala Land Reforms Act 1964---Sec. 81, 83, 84, 85, 85A and 86 Voluntary transfers made after notified date whether valid.JUDGMENT: CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION: Civil Appeal No. 1177 of 1975.(From the judgment and order dated 10-10-1974 of the Kerala High Court in Civil Revision Petition No. 734/74).K.T. Harindranath, and K.M.K. Nair, for the appellants.T.C. Raghavan and P.K. Pillai, for the respondent.The Judgment of the C...
See the full content of this document