Patna, Patna High Court held former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar entitled to compensation for a patch of land acquired by the Bihar government, quashing a district collector’s order that cancelled the land’s revenue records.
The land in question is a 0.56-acre patch in Patna’s Mainpura locality in the Phulwari revenue area, acquired by the state government in 1976 for the construction of a drain. Indrani Devi purchased the land in 1965, after which her name was mutated in the revenue records. Justice Reza held that proceedings under Section 4 of the Bihar Land Reforms Act were dependent on the vesting of an estate in the state government under the Act.
Kumar’s name was also mutated on the basis of a registered will after her mother’s demise, it said. “There is no notification produced under Section 3 or 3A by the State during the present proceeding and earlier proceeding” to establish such vesting in respect of the disputed land, the court said, adding that the collector lacked jurisdiction to initiate proceedings under Section 4 without establishing the necessary vesting. The court said the provisions of Section 4 were “ancillary in character” and could not be invoked independently of the principal provisions governing vesting of estates in the state. Noting that the “petitioner has been on the land for over 60 years,” the court said, “If the State wishes to challenge a pre-1946 title or settlement, the proper remedy is to approach a competent Civil Court rather than executing a summary cancellation via revenue proceedings.”
