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Bayaji Sambhu Mali @ Borate (D) Thr. LRs. v. Nazir Mohammed Balal Zari Thr. GPA Holder & Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2019 INSC 183Decided 12 Feb 2019
Civil Appeal Nos. 1644-1645 of 2019
Justice Ashok Bhushan · Justice K.M. Joseph

Background

The appellant was a tenant farming land belonging to a landlord who was a minor on the relevant "Tillers Day" (1.4.1957) under the Bombay Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act. Decades of litigation followed: the landlord's bid to recover the land for personal cultivation was rejected at multiple levels, but when the tenant later sought formal recognition of his purchase of the land under Section 32G of the Act, the authorities repeatedly disagreed over whether he needed to have separately given a statutory notice under Section 32F(1A): some authorities and ultimately the Maharashtra Revenue Tribunal and the High Court held he did and had failed to do so, while an Appellate Authority earlier had ruled in his favour.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that Section 32F's notice requirement only applies where a landlord has a live, unexercised right to resume land for personal cultivation under Section 31: it does not apply once that right has already been tested and rejected by a competent authority. Since the landlord's own application to recover possession had been dismissed years earlier (and that dismissal had attained finality through multiple levels of litigation), the tenant had already acquired a "deemed purchaser" status by operation of law and was not additionally required to send any notice under Section 32F(1A). The Court also found that the authorities and High Court had wrongly weighed a minor discrepancy in dates against the tenant despite overwhelming documentary evidence of the genuine, long-running litigation history. It therefore allowed the appeal, set aside the High Court's and Tribunal's orders, and restored the earlier Collector's order recognising the tenant's purchase, with no order as to costs.

Lesson Learnt

Under tenancy law, a tenant does not need to send a further statutory notice to "confirm" a land purchase once the landlord's own claim to reclaim the land for personal use has already been finally rejected by the authorities: the deemed-purchase protection kicks in automatically at that point.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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