ivil Appeal Nos 2542 to 2544 of 1972
Appeals by Special Leave from the Judgment and order dated 11 12 1970 of the Madras High Court in Civil Revision Petitions Nos
1824 and 182565
V P Raman Adv
and A V Rangam for the Appellant
1123 A T M Sampath for Respondent in CA 254272
K section Ramamurthi Mrs Saroja Gopalkrishnan for Respondent in CA 254272
K Jayaram and K Ram Kumar for R 1 in CA 254472
K Rajendra Choudhry for R 2 in CA 254472
The Judgment of
the Court was delivered by KRISHNA IYER J
The short point of law decided in the long judgment under appeal may justly be given short shrift
But the batch of Civil Revision Petitions allowed by the High Court involves a legal issue of deep import from the angle of agrarian reform and surplus land available for distribution under its scheme that we deem it proper to discuss the core question at some length
If the statutory construction which found favour with the High Court be correct the risk of reform legislation being condemned to functional futility is great and so the State has come up in appeal by Special Leave challenging the High Court s interpretation of section 22 of the Tamil Nadu Land Reforms Fixation of Ceiling on land Act 1961 for short the Ceiling Act
Presently we will set out the skeletal facts relating to the civil appeals and the scheme of the Act designed for distributive justice in the field of agricultural land ownership sufficient to disclose the purpose of the legislation the mischief it intends to suppress the reverse effect of the construction put on the key section section 22 in the judgment under appeal and the consequent stultification of the objective of the Ceiling Act
While dealing with welfare legislation of so fundamental a character as agrarian reform the court must constantly remember that the statutory pilgrimage to destination social justice  should be helped and not hampered by judicial interpretation
For the story of agrarian re distribution in Tamil Nadu as elsewhere has been tardy and zigzag what with legislative delays judicial stays and invalidations followed by fresh constitutional amendments and new constitutional challenges and statutory constructions holding up for decades urgent measures of rural economic justice which was part of the pledges of the Freedom struggle
It is true that judges are constitutional invigilators and statutory interpreters but they are also responsive and responsible to Part IV of the Constitution being one of the trinity of the nation s appointed instrumentalities in the transformation of the socio economic order
The judiciary in its sphere shares the revolutionary purpose of the Constitutional order and when called upon to decode social legislation must be animated by a goal oriented approach
This is part of the dynamic of statutory intretation in the developing countries so that courts are not converted into rescue shelters for those who seek to defeat agrarian justice by cute transac 1124 tions of many manifestations now so similar in the country and illustrated by the several cases under appeal
This caveat has become necessary because the judiciary is not a mere umpire as some assume but an activist catalyst in the constitutional scheme
The Ceiling Act in its structure and process follows the common pattern
The object is equitable distribution of land to the landless by relieving those who hold more than the optimum extent fixed by the law
The success of the scheme depends on maximisation of surplus land to be taken over by the State from large landholders
The strategy of fixing a severe ceiling on land holdings was expected to be paralysed by anticipatory strategems by landholders and so the legislature sought to outwit them and clamped down pre emptive restrictions on transfer whereby the surplus takeover would be sabotaged Chapter II prescribes the ceiling on land holdings and Chapter III proscribes certain types of deleterious transfers and future acquisitions
One such provision is section 22 which falls for immediate dissection
The machinery for working out the scheme includes authorised officers  defined in section 35 of the Ceiling Act
The rest of the infrastructure for implementation of the statutory scheme is not material for our case nor the other chapters relating to compensation exemptions and the like Chapter XI provides for appeals and revisions and the High Court by virtue of section 83 read with section 115 of the Code of Civil Procedure has jurisdiction to entertain revisions against orders of Land Tribunals which enjoy appellate powers over orders of authorised officers in the manner provided
The present appeals are against a common order of the High Court allowing several revision petitions under section 115 CPC
Now the respondents before us in the several appeals are persons whose transfers have been held void by the authorised officer and the land Tribunal but upheld by the High Court on a narrow construction of section 22 of the Ceiling Act
The alienations took many forms ranging from stridhana to bona fide sale but shared one common attribute that they were executed during the suspect spell if one may say so between the date of commencement of the Act and the notified date
The legislature in its realistic anxiety and pragmatic wisdom demarcated a lethal zone viz the period between the two dates stated above when all landholders with lands in excess of the ceiling would desperately salvage their surplus by resort to devices some bona fide some not but all having the effect of frustrating the legislative objective of freezing holdings as on the date of commencement of the Act and seizing the surplus in terms cf the Act for eventual equitable distribution after payment of statutory compensation
1125 Before embarking on any further discussion of the project of interdicting transfers as spelt out in section 22 we may read the provision Where on or after tho date of commencement of this Act but before the notified date any person has transferred any land held by him by sale gift other than gift made in contemplation of death exchange surrender settlement or in any other manner except by request or has effected a partition of his holding or part thereof the Authorised officer within whose jurisdiction such land holding of the major part thereof is situated may after notice to such person and other persons affected by such transfer on partition and after such enquiry as he thinks fit to make declare the transfer or partition to be void if he finds that the transfer or the partition as the case may be defeats any of the provisions of this Act
 Three semantic alternatives compete for judicial acceptance
The first which appealed to the Land Tribunal is that all alienations during the dubious period specificated in section 22 if executed by a holder who but for such shedding operation or alienation would have had lands in excess of the ceiling prescribed by the Act are void because they are sure to defeat the surplus  provisions of the Act
The second alternative which swings to the other extreme but has met with the High Court s approval virtually salvages all such transfers save sham and mala fide ones for only if they are obnoxious in that sense can they be caught in the coils of section 22
The third possible construction which is in between the two extremes and has been forcefully pressed before us by Shri K section Ramamurthy validates bona fide transfers even during the offending period the reason being that regardless of their impact on the scheme of the Act or its provisions the primary object is bona fide fulfilment of the alienor s purposes such as discharge of pressing debts or borrowing to perform necessitous obligations and not to defeat or thwart the purposes or provisions of the Act
The judicial choice from among these triple possibles depends on the rules of statutory interpretation
In the present case the basic facts are beyond dispute
The legislature had a defined plan of providing for a ceiling on land holding taking over the balance and distributing it among the landless according to priorities
In this perspective it defined the date of the commencement of this Act in section 311 as meaning the 15th day of February 1970
It also defined in section 331 the notified date
As stated earlier the Ceiling Act had 1126 a chequered career in court and indeed at one stage the whole Act was struck down as unconstitutional
However now it is immune to attack having been included in the Ninth Schedule and there is no challenge to its vires before us
On account of extensive mischief done by alienations on a considerable scale calculated to undo the public policy behind agrarian reform the legislature felt the necessity to provide in section 22 that transfers made between 6 4 1960 and 2 10 1962 would be void if they defeated the provisions of the Act
In all the cases before us the transfers which have been ignored by the Authorised officer fall within this interregnum
That being admitted the only question is whether the lethal effect of section 22 operates only in the case of transfers which are sham and specifically intended to defeat the Act or does not affect transfers which are otherwise bona fide or is so pervasive that if the effect of the transfer is to defeat the provisions of the Act whatever the intent of the parties the transfer is void and can be ignored vis a vis the Ceiling Act and the Authorised officer may legitimately proceed to compute the surplus area on this basis
The learned judge adverted to an argument that the Act being a confiscatory one the public authority invested with the power to enquire into and to invalidate a transfer should act reasonably and that such a power should be construed beneficently in favour of the subject who is affected by the statue emphasis added
This approach sanctified by tradition and vintage jurisprudence is inept and inapplicable when we consider agrarian reform legislation whose avowed purpose is to take away as much extent of land as policy dictates so that distribution thereof among the landless may be achieved
When a whole legislation is geared to deprivation of property subject to payment of compensation rules which have frowned upon confiscatory legislation cannot apply at all
We are concerned with a Re public created by the people of India with a social transformation where the State is hot antagonistic to the citizen but harmonises individual interest with community good
The jurisprudential principles in such a situation cannot be the same as have been inherited from a culture which postulates the State versus the subject
We do not explore the aspect of the law further as we are satisfied that the answer to the specific question raised before us flows directly from a reading of the Section in the light of well established rules of interpretation
Section 7 is a key provision and runs as follows on and from the date of commencement of this Act no person shall except as otherwise provided in this Act but 1127 subject to the provisions of Chapter VIII be entitled to hold land in excess of the ceiling area Provided that in calculating the total of land held by any person any extent in excess of the ceiling area and not exceeding half an acre in the case of wet land and one acre in the case of dry land shall irrespective of the assessment of such land be excluded
 Section 8 directs every person who holds land in excess of 30 standard acres to submit a return with specified particulars
Section 18 is the culmination and provides for the publication of a notification to the effect
that the surplus land with each landholder is required for a public purpose
Thereupon such land shall be deemed to have been acquired for a public purpose and shall vest in the Government
Chapter III is a protective armour created by the statute with prohibitions and proscriptions
In particular section 22 which we have quoted earlier contains an interdict
If any transfer contrary to its tenor is created it can be voided by the Authorised officer
The whole purpose is to make available land with Government for its equitable dispensation according to the statutory plan
Section 94 is relevant in this context
6 4 1960 is the date of commencement of the Act
2 10 62 is the notified date
Transfers in between these two dates have been executed by the respondents in the various appeals before us
The concrete question is wether section 22 has the effect of rendering such transfers invalid ipso facto or whether there is need for further proof that such transfers are sham nominal and bogus
The view taken by the High Court is that  
Section 22 seems to cover only those sham nominal and bogus transfers which are only intended to defeat the provisions of the Act
If the Legislative intention is also to invalidate all bona fide transactions during the relevant period it would have made certain consequential provisions as to what are the rights of the transferor and the transferee in relation to the property conveyed and how the resultant equities between the transferee and the transferor have to be worked out
This view that section 22 will cover only transactions of sham nominal and bogus character which are intended only to defeat the provisions of the Act will not be inconsistent with the object provided in section 7 1128 The learned judge seems to take a liberal view that transactions entered into in anticipation of the Ceiling Act will not be hit by the provisions preventing such transfers except where they are mala fide or oolourable
The reason partly turns on semantics and the court argue with logical support The word defeat normally means overcome thwart evade frustrate circumvent bypass disappoint prevent the accomplishment of the word defeat in Section 22 is one to be taken as having been used to import sinister motive
I Maxwell on the interpretation of statutes twelfth edition after stating that the Courts will not be astute to narrow the language of a statute so as to allow persons within its purview to escape its net that the statute has to be applied to the substance rather than the mere from of transactions thus _ defeating any shifts and contrivances which parties may have devised in the hope of falling outside the Act
 The conclusion categorically reached by the High Court virtually emasculates section 22 as we understand its object and import
The learned judge winds up with these words on a due consideration of the matter I hold that under section 22 of the Act the authorised officer is entitled to declare as void only those transfers which are sham and nominal entered into with the avowed object of defeating the provisions of the Act without any bona fide intention to transfer title
So in the light of the view expressed above the facts of each case have to be considered
 Section 22 literally read leads only to one conclusion that any transfer bona fide executed or not is liable to be declared void by the Authorised Officer if he finds that the transfer defeats any of the provisions of this Act
 There is not the slightest doubt that severally and cumulatively the provisions of the Act seek to make available the maximum extent of land in excess of the ceiling to be vested in Government for fulfilment of its purposes
Chapter II contains a fasciculus of provisions in this behalf and if any transfer carves out of the surplus area some land pro tanto the provisions of the Act are defeated
Indeed it is not seriously disputed that such will be the conclusion if we do not read into the provisions either the condition that it does not apply to bona fide transfers as Shri Ramamurthy would have it or does not apply to any transfers other than sham nominal or bogus transfers as the High Court would have it
A policy oriented interpretation tallies with the literal construction in the 1129 present case
The mischief rule in Heydon s case and the grammatical construction which is the Golden Rule converge to the same conclusion in the present case
The policy of the law of land reform with drastic limit on holdings often drives large holders to evade by manouvres
They make r 
gifts execute sales or settlements enter into other dealings to save their properties from being taken by the State
May be in a few cases the owner has real necessity
But why sell only on The eve of land legislation Why execute deeds though for good purposes only where the bill fixing ceilings is round the corner By and large the strategies of extrication of holdings from the arm of the law is the t reason that prompts sudden affection for making gifts sudden realisation of debts due and sudden awareness of family necessity
The legislature astute enough not to be outwitted in its objective puts a blanket ban on transfers which in effect defeat its provisions
This may cause hardship to some but every cause claims martyrs
Individual trauma is inevitable while ushering in a new economic order
This is the rationale of section 22 of the Ceiling Act
To alloy the sense of the text and to mi alien concepts is to debase the statutory metal
Likewise laws are not value free and so he reads the symbols of words best who projects in the process the values of the legislation as distinguished from his own
Reading other values into the legislators  words may judicially demonetize the statute and break me comity between constitutional instrumentalities
The current and correct view of the interpretative process is that words must be given their literal  or ordinary  meaning unless there are compelling reasons recognised by canons of construction to the contrary
It must be remembered that the judicial rule of law for interpreting statutes applies the grammatical approach thereby to bring out the value judgment incorporated in the statute itself
Some times it is called the equity of the statute 
As Prof R B Stevens of the Yale University has pointed out Whenever the judges support to depart from the literal or ordinary meaning and apply the mischief rule or the golden rule there is danger that in place of those irrelevant criteria the canons of construction they have more obviously substituted their own perhaps more harmful impressions views prejudices or predispositions
Such conflicts between what Parliament intended and what the judges assumed Parliament to have intended have long been appreciated
1 I Modern Law Review Vol
281965 p 525 16 409 SCI79 1130 Those who have reflected on the meaning of meaning have said that words mean nothing by themselves 1
They convey policy and the judge who interprets must seek the intent of the legislature by gaining an insight into this policy and making it manifest through the process of construction
Looking at the words of section 22 in the light of the scheme of prohibition of transfers to preserve the surplus lands for distribution we find no justification for importing into section 22 more than its words convey
The Section says what it means nothing more nothing else
A simple scan of the provision reveals that any transfer gift surrender settlement or other alienation referred to in the Section may be declared void by the Authorised officer if he finds that the transfer or the partition defeats any of the provisions of this Act
The trichotomy is obvious
There must be a transfer or other alienation
It must have taken place during the period mentioned in the Section
It must have the effect of defeating any of the provisions of the Act
If these three elements are present the Authorised officer must void the transfer
There is no room for importing a fourth principal that the transfer should be sham nominal or bogus 
Nor indeed is there any additional consideration that if the transfer is bona fide for family necessity or other urgency then it is good even though it defeats the provisions of the Act
We cannot amend the Section or dilute its imperatives scared by the consequences or moved by extraneous sympathies
Sub conscious forces and individual prepossessions have a subtle way of entering the interpretative verdict of the judge
We have to be constantly careful to exclude such intrusions
Moreover when the whole purpose of the Section is to prevent any alienation which defeats any of the purpose if visions of the Act it is impermissible to introduce any requirement other than is mentioned in the Section as a condition for its operation
Obviously the provision seeks to provide social justice for the landless and it defeats the purpose if by the interpretative process soft Justice to large landholders is brought about
We consider the literal  meaning of the Section to be that any transfer or other alienation mentioned in the Section which reduces or impairs the otherwise available extent of surplus land beyond the ceiling defeats the provisions of this Act
 This is the plain meaning of the Section which gives no room for doubt or justification for importation of any further condition like sham bogus etc
A return to the rules of strict construction when the purpose of I C Ogden and I Richards The Meaning of Meaning 9 10th Edn 1956 1131 the statute needs it is desirable especially with a view to give effect A to the intention of the legislature
We are reminded of Lord Denning s interesting remarks in his recent book The Discipline of Law under heading I am a Portia Man
In justification of his view Russell LJ quoted a passage from Shakespeare
It is worth recording because there are lessons to be drawn from it as there often are from Shakes peare I may perhaps be forgiven for saying that it appears to me that Lord Denning MR has acceded to the appeal of Bessanio in the Merchant of Venice
Bessanio And I beseech you Wrest once the law to your authority To do a great right do a little wrong
But Portia retorted It must not be there is no power in Venice Can alter a decree established It will be recorded for a precedent And many an error by the same example Will rush into the State it cannot be Then said Russell LJ I am a Portia man 
I cannot believe that Russell LJ would be a Portia man  if it meant aligning himself with Shylock in support of a strict law of penalties which could not be relieved by equity
To be truly a Portia marl  The lawyer should follow the way ill which Portia avoided an unjust decree
Not to let the words of the deed be the masters but so construe them adapt them as the occasion demands so as to do what justice and equity require
This is how she turned the tables on Shylock It is in this denouement that I would follow the example of Portia I too am a Portia man In the interpretation of section 22 we too are Portia men
For this reason we reverse the view of the High Court that section 22 will not apply to nullify any transaction of transfer or partition unless it is further 1132 shown that it is sham nominal or bogus
Nor do we agree with Shri Ramamurthy that even if a Transaction defeats the ceiling provisions it may still be valid if the transfer is from an individual point of view bona fide
The short reply is that from the community s angle especially the landless community s angle hungering for allotment the alienation however necessary for the individual is not bona fide visa vis the community
Therefore we allow the appeal in the light of the interpretation we have adopted restore the tribunal s holding and rule that if any transfer defeats the provisions of the Act by reducing the extent of surplus land in excess of the ceiling available from any person such transaction bona fide or not is void in the matter of computation of the permissible area and the surplus area
May be that the transaction may be good for other purposes or may not be
The Authorised officer is within his power if he ignores it as void for purposes of section 22 section 7 and other ceiling related provisions
The detailed discussion of the High Court on many other aspects of the Act do not affect the core of the matter and cannot deflect us from the conclusion we have arrived at
The appeals are allowed but in the light of the earlier direction of the Court the State will pay the costs of the respondent
PBR Appeal allowed


Summary:
Section 7 of the Tamil Nadu Land Reforms Fixation of Ceiling on Land Act 1961 provides that on and from the date of commencement of the Act no person shall except as otherwise provided in the Act but subject to the provisions of Chapter VIII be entitled to hold land in excess of the ceiling area
Section 22 provides that where on or after the date of commencement of the Act 6th April 1960 but before the notified date 2nd October 1962 any person has transferred any land held by him by sale gift etc
the Authorised officer within whose jurisdiction such land holding of the major part thereof is situated may after notice to such person and other persons affected by such transfer or partition and after such inquiry as he thinks fit to make declare tho transfer or partition to be void if he finds that the transfer or the partition as the case may be defeats any of tho provisions of the Act
Tho alienations in all the cases took many forms ranging from stridhana to bona fide sale and they were executed between the date of commencement of the Act and notified date
The Land Tribunal held that the alienations were void because but for the alienations the holders would have had the lands in excess of the ceiling prescribed by the Act
On the interpretation of section 22 of the Act the High Court was of the view that the section covered only those sham nominal and bogus transfers which are intended to defeat the provisions of the Act and which are inconsistent with the object provided in section 7
It was also held that transactions entered into in anticipation of the Ceiling Act would not be hit by the provisions preventing such transfers except where they were mala fide or colourable and that tho the word defeat in section 22 should be taken as having been used to import a sinister motive
It was therefore held that under section 22 the Authorised officer is entitled to declare as void only those transfers which are sham and nominal entered into with the avowed object of defeating the provisions of the Act without any bona fide intention to transfer title
 HELD 1 If any transfer defeats the provisions of the Act by reducing the extent of surplus land in excess of the ceiling available from any person such transaction bona fide or not is void in the matter of computation of the permissible area and the surplus area
The Authorised officer is within his power if he ignores it as void for purposes of section 22 section 7 and other ceiling related provisions
1132C 1122 2 Looking at the words of section 22 in the light of the scheme of prohibition of transfers to preserve the surplus land for distribution there is no justification for importing into section 22 more than its words convey
The section says what it means
A simple scan of the provision reveals that any transfer gift surrender settlement or other alienations may be declared void by the Authorized Officer if he finds that the transfer or the partition defeats any of the provision of this Act
The trichotomy is obvious There must be a transfer or other n alienation it must have taken place during the period mentioned in the section it must have the effect of defeating any of the provisions of the Act
if these three elements are present the Authorised officer must void the transfer
There is no rule for importing a fourth principle that the transfer should be sham nominal or bogus nor is there any additional consideration that if the transfer is bona fide for family necessity or other urgency then it is good even though it defeats the provisions of the Act
The provision seeks to provide social justice for the landless and it defeats the purpose if by the interpretative process soft justice to large land holders is brought about
1130B D 3 The literal meaning of the section is that any transfer or other alienation mentioned in it which reduces or impairs the otherwise available extent of surplus land beyond the ceiling defeats the provisions of the Act
This is the plain meaning of the section which gives no room for doubt or justification for importation of any further condition like sham bogus etc
4 The High Court was wrong in its view that the Act being confiscatory one the public authority invested with the power to enquire into and to invalidate a transfer should act reasonably and that such a power should be construed beneficially in favour of the subject who is affected by the statute
 The approach of the High Court is inept and inapplicable when once considers agrarian reform legislation whose avowed purpose is to take away as much extent of land as policy dictates so that distribution thereof among the landless may be achieved
When a whole legislation is geared to deprivation of property rules which have frowned upon confiscatory legislation cannot apply at all
The jurisprudential principles in such a situation cannot be the same as have been inherited from a culture which postulates the State vs the subject
1126E G 5 While dealing with welfare legislation of so fundamental 3 character as agrarian reform the Court must constantly remember that the statutory pilgrimage to destination social justice should be helped not hampered by judicial interpretation
It is true that Judges are constitutional invigilators and statutory interpreters but they are also responsive and responsible to Part IV of the Constitution
The judiciary in its sphere shares the revolutionary purpose of the constitutional order and when called upon to decode social legislation it must be animated by the goal oriented approach
1123E H