1 WP 4121.2009 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY BENCH AT AURANGABAD WRIT PETITION NO. 4121 OF 2009 Kisan S/o Bhaorao Sabale & another .... PETITIONERS V E R S U S The State of Maharashtra & Oths. .... RESPONDENTS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mr. A.C.Darandale, Advocate for the petitioner. Mr. S.K.Kadam, Asstt. Govt. Pleader for State. Mr. R.N.Dhorde, Advocate for Resp. No.2 to 4. Mr. N.S.Choudhari, Advocate for Resp. No. 6. CORAM : NARESH H. PATIL & S.V. GANGAPURWALA, JJ. DATE : 14/01/2011 PER COURT : 1. Heard. 2. The petitioner claims to be a small farmer. He owns 2.02 Hector land. He obtained loan to the extent of Rs. 4.10 Lacs. The petitioner claims benefit under Loan Waiver Scheme implemented by the Central Govt. known as Agricultural Debt Waiver and Debt Relief Scheme, 2008. In clause 3.3, small farmer is defined, : 2 WP 4121.2009 “ ‘ Small Farmer ’ means a farmer cultivating ( as owner or tenant or share cropper ) agricultural land of more than 1 hectare and up to 2 hectares ( 5 acres ) ”. 3. The petitioner was denied benefit of the waiver scheme on the ground that the petitioner’s land holding is more than 5 Acres. 4. The learned counsel appearing for the petitioner submits that 2.02 Hectors in accordance with the standard measurement system would come to 5 Acres land holding, therefore, the petitioner is entitled for the benefit under the debt waiver and debt relief scheme. 5. The respondent filed affidavit in reply. The relevant portion of paragraph no. 4 of the reply reads as under : “ As is evident from the above definitions, eligibility in terms of land holding in hectares and its equivalent in acres are given for the specific purpose of implementation of this Scheme. It is submitted that as per well established principles of the interpretation the given specific formula for eligibility would prevail over the general formula of conversion as cited by the Petitioner. One hectare 3 WP 4121.2009 has been indicated in the definition as equal to 2.5 acres, while as per standard metric conversion table 1 hectare is equal to 2.47105 acre. The conversion table as applied in ADWDR scheme is favourable to the farmers and covered more farmers than if the standard metric conversion was adopted by the Government of India (GoI). Hence, no injustice has been done to the eligible farmers under the conversion system adopted under the ADWDR Scheme. The given conversion formula was to be applied only in one way, i.e. from hectare to acre and not from acre to hectare. It is humbly submitted that the petitioner is interpreting the Scheme approved by the Government in a manner that is personally beneficial to him and the same can not be permitted, sacrificing the interest of general farmers ”. 6. Mr. N.S. Patil, learned counsel for respondent no. 6 has brought to our notice a communication dated 24/2/2010 made by the Under Secretary of the Govt. of India to the Principal Secretary ( Cooperation and Marketing), Cooperation, Marketing and Textile Deptt. , Govt. of Maharashtra, Mantralaya, Mumbai . 4 WP 4121.2009 7. We have perused the relevant documents placed on record. We find that the explanation tendered by the Central Govt. is plausible and acceptable. The Central Govt. had adopted ADWDR Scheme in respect of implementation of the Debt Waiver Scheme, 2008. It is the view of the Central Govt. that the scheme is successfully implemented and it got closed on 30/6/2008. 8. In the light of the explanation tendered by the Central Govt., no interference is called for in extra ordinary writ jurisdiction of this Court. The Writ Petition is accordingly dismissed. [S.V. GANGAPURWALA, J.] [NARESH H. PATIL,J.] knp/WP 4121.2009