Janardan Dagdu Khomane and Another v. Eknath Bhiku Yadav & Ors.
Background
The appellants were trustees of a temple trust that had owned agricultural land classified as "Devasthan Inam" land since before independence, which had over time been let out to tenant farmers (the respondents' forefathers). The respondents claimed to have become statutory deemed purchasers of the land on "Tillers' Day" (1 April 1957) under Section 32 of the Bombay Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act, 1948, but the trustees argued the land was exempt from this tenancy-purchase scheme under Section 88B because it belonged to a registered public religious trust. The Bombay High Court ruled in favour of the tenants, directing authorities to fix the purchase price, and the trustees appealed to the Supreme Court.
Decision Breakdown
The Supreme Court held that while the trust was validly registered as a public trust under the Bombay Public Trusts Act, that registration only took effect prospectively from 1984: decades after the respondents' statutory right to purchase the land had already vested on Tillers' Day in 1957. The Court held that the exemption under Section 88B applies only to trusts that were already registered (or deemed registered under specific scheduled enactments) at the relevant time, and there was no provision deeming this trust registered earlier merely because it was a public religious trust in substance. Since the tenants' right to be deemed purchasers had already accrued before the trust's registration, it could not be retroactively defeated, and the Court affirmed the High Court's judgment and dismissed the appeal.
Lesson Learnt
A statutory tenant's right to purchase agricultural land that vested on the prescribed cut-off date cannot be undone by a trust's later registration as a religious/public trust: exemptions under tenancy law apply only from the date registration actually takes effect, not retroactively.