Civil Appeal No 245 N of 1971
Appeal by Certificate from the Judgement and Order dated the 9th February 1979 of the Madhya Pradesh High Court at Jabalpur in Miscellaneous Petition No 361 of 1967
Mukul Rohtagi and A G Ratnaparkhi for the Appellants
Ravinder Bana and A K Sanghi for the Respondents The Judgment of the Court was delivered by FAZAL ALI J
This appeal by certificate is directed against a judgment of the Madhya Pradesh High Court dismissing the writ petition filed by the appellants against certain orders of the Revenue Officers under the provisions of the Madhya Pradesh Abolition of Proprietary Rights Estates Mahals Alienated Lands Act 1950 for short Abolition Act  which came into force sometime in the year 1951
By virtue of s6 of the Abolition Act all transfers made by proprietors at any time after 16th March 1950 were deemed to be void unless declared valid by the Collector on a proper application made to him
The transferees in view of the aforesaid provisions filed applications before the Collector in 1964 who validated the transfers by his order dated 6th June 1964
Against the order of the Collector a revision was taken by the Commissioner in exercise of his powers under section 50 of the M P Land Revenue Code 1959 hereinafter referred to as the Code 
The transferees objected to the jurisdiction of the Commissioner on the ground that he had no power to revise the order of the Collector
This contention was rejected by the Commissioner and hence a revision was taken to the Board of Revenue which confirmed the view of the Commissioner
It was against this order that the appellants filed a writ petition 802 before the High Court assailing the orders of the Commissioner as also the Board of Revenue
The learned counsel for the appellants contended that any order passed under s6 of the Abolition Act was not revisable under the Code because the Abolition Act was a Code or a law complete in itself and conferred no powers of revision or appeal outside the Abolition Act
Hence it was contended the Commissioner had no jurisdiction to entertain suo moto revision
In the second place it was argued that under section 84 of the Abolition Act appeals were provided against all orders passed by Revenue Officers and since there was a right of appeal provided under the Act no revisional power could be exercised either by the commissioner or by the Board of Revenue under the Code It was also faintly urged before the High Court that the Revenue Officers when exercising powers under the Abolition Act were not exercising the powers as Revenue Officers but as a persona designata under the Abolition Act In other words the contention raised before the High Court which was repeated before us was that the Revenue Officers had a dual capacity 1 under the Abolition Act and 2 under the Code
The High Court however rejected the contention and in our opinion rightly
A perusal of the schemes of the Abolition Act and the Code clearly indicates that the two Acts were in pari materia and the revenue officers were exercising powers under both the Acts cognately
There was no clearcut distinction between a Revenue Officer acting under the Abolition Act and acting under the Code
This being the position it is manifest that the revisional powers could be exercised by the Revenue Officers under 9 50 of the Code and even under the Abolition Act as well
We find ourselves in complete agreement with the view taken by the High Court on this point and which was also not seriously challenged before us
The sheet anchor of the contention of the learned counsel for the appellants before us was that even assuming that the two statutes Abolition Act and the Code were statutes in pari maieria they possess two clearcut and separate powers that is to say no suo moto revision could lie to the Revenue officers unless a revision or appeal was filed before the Commissioner by the party
It is not disputed in this case that the Commissioner Board of Revenue passed the order in exercise of their revisional powers
It would however appear that under the provisions of the Abolition 803 Act as also the Code both the Commissioner and the Board were appellate as also revisional authorities
Thus when two powers were conferred on the said officers in a sort of a combined capacity it cannot be said that merely because the formality of filing a regular appeal before the Commissioner or the Board was not adopted a suo moto revision would not lie
The contention could have some substance if there would have been any statutory embargo on the hierarchy of the Officers mentioned above to entertain any revision against an order passed by one authority without filing an appeal before it
In the instant case we find that both the Commissioner and the Board of Revenue had appellate as also revisional powers
Both these powers being conferred on the same authority the difference between the exercise of a revision or appeal was a mere idle formality and was of no consequence
The result is that all the contentions raised by the appellants fail and the appeal is dismissed but in the circumstances of the case without any order as to costs
MLA Appeal dismissed


Summary:
The Collector validated certain transfers on the applications of appellants U5
6 of the M P Abolition Act 1950 but a revision was taken by the Commissioner section 50 of the M P Land Revenue Code 1959 for short the Code against the order Or the Collector
The appellants  contention before the Commissioner that he had no jurisdiction or power to revise the order of the Collector was rejected
The Board of Revenue in the revision and the High Court in a writ petition filed by the appellants confirmed the view of the Commissioner
Hence this appeal
The appellants contended i that the order of the Collector was not revisable under the Code because the Abolition Act was a Code or a law complete in itself and conferred no powers of revision or appeal outside the Abolition Act and therefore the Commissioner had no jurisdiction to entertain suo moto revision ii that since there was a right of appeal under sec
84 of the Abolition Act no revisional power could be exercised either by Commissioner or by the Board of Revenue under the Code and iii that even assuming that the Abolition Act and the Code were statutes in pari materia they possess two clear cut and separate powers that is to say no suo moto revision could lie to the Revenue Officers unless a revision or appeal was Sled before the Commissioner by the party
Dismissing the appeal to this Court  HELD 1 A perusal of the schemes of the Abolition Act and the Code clearly indicates that the two Acts were in pari materia and the revenue officers were exercising powers under both the Acts cognately
There was no clearcut distinction between a Revenue Officer acting under the Abolition Act and acting under the Code
This being the position it is manifest that the revisional powers could be exercised by the Revenue Officers under section 50 of the Code and even under the Abolition Act as well
802D E 801 2 Under the provisions of the Abolition Act as also the Code both the Commissioner and the Board were appellate as also revisional authorities
Thus when two powers were conferred on the said officers in a sort of a combined capacity it cannot be said that merely because the formality of filing a regular appeal before the Commissioner or the Board was not adopted a suo moto revision would not lie 802H 813A B In the instant case both the Commissioner and the Board of Revenue had appellate as also revisional powers Both these powers being conferred on the same authority the difference between the exercise of a revision or appeal was a mere idle formality and was of no consequence 803C D