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1964 DIGILAW 127 (RAJ)

Nathudan v. State of Rajasthan

1964-07-22

JAGAT NARAYAN

body1964
JAGAT NARAYAN, J.—This is a reference by the Munsif, Jalore under sec. 113 C.P.C. 2. One Nathudan filed an application before him under sec.6 of the Rajasthan Relief of Agricultural Indebtedness Act, 1957, for determination of his "debt". His liabilities include some loan made to him by the State Government, under sec. 4(j) of the Act, the provisions of which are not applicable to "any other sum of money due to Government by way of or towards payment of a loan". It is contended that this provision is void as it is hit by Art. 14 of the Constitution. 3. The learned Advocate General concedes that it is so hit. 4. In Mukanchand Vs. Inder Singh (1) a Division Bench of this Court held that section 2(e) of the Rajasthan Jagirdars Debt Reduction Act was hit by Art. 14 of the Constitution. This part of the judgment was upheld by their Lordships of the Supreme Court (Civil Appeal No. 507 of 1961, decided on 26.2.64 State of Rajasthan Vs. Mukanchand) sec. 2 (e) of that Act ran as follows:— "Debt means an advance in cash or in kind and includes any transaction which is in substance a debt but does not include an advance as aforesaid made on or after the first day of January 1949 or a debt due to— (i) the Central Government or Government of any State; (ii) a local authority; (iii) a scheduled bank; (iv) a co-operative society; and (v) a waqf, trust or endowment for a charitable or religious purpose only; or (vi) a person where the debt was advanced on his behalf by the Court of Wards." Confirming the judgment of the High Court their Lordships of the Supreme Court observed as follows— "We think that the High Court was right in holding that the impugned part of sec. 2(e) infringes Art. 14 of the Constitution. It is now well-settled that in order to pass the test of permissible classification, two conditions must be fulfilled, namely, (1) that the classification must be founded on an intelligible differentiation which distinguishes persons or things that are to be put together from others left out of the group, and (2) that the differentia must have a rational relationship to the object sought to be achieved by the statute in question. In our opinion, condition No. 2 above has clearly not been satisfied in this case. In our opinion, condition No. 2 above has clearly not been satisfied in this case. The object sought to be achieved by the impugned Act was to reduce the debts secured on jagir lands which had been resumed under the provisions of the Rajasthan Land Reforms and Resumption of Jagirs Act. The Jagirdars capacity to pay debts had been reduced by the resumption of his lands and the object of the Act was to ameliorate his condition. The fact that the debts are owed to a government or local authority or other bodies mentioned in the impugned part of sec. 2fe) has no rational relationship with the object sought to be achieved by the Act. Further, no intelligible principle underlies the exempted categories of debts." 5. The above observations are equally applicable to the part of sec. 4(}) of the Rajasthan Relief of Agricultural Indebtedness Act namely "any other sum of money due to Government by way of or towards payment of a loan". 6. The reference is answered as indicated above. Let the record be returned to Munsif, Jalore, so that the suit may be disposed of expeditiously.