IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT PATNA CWJC No.6401 of 2004 RAMJEE SINGH, son of Late Shiv Nandan Singh, village Kanti Kaswa, PS Kanti, District Muzaffarpur - petitioner. with CWJC No.6402 of 2004 KAILASH PRASAD SINGH @ KAILASH Singh, son of Late Harinandan Singh, village Kanti Kaswa, PS Kanti, District Muzaffarpur – Petitioner. with CWJC No.6437 of 2004 SURYA MISHR, son of Rajroop Mishra, village Bheriyahi Soti, PS Kanti, Dist. Muzaffarpur, at present residing at Kanti Kaswa, Ps Kanti, Dist. Muzaffarpur – Petitioner. with CWJC No.6439 of 2004 RAJESHWAR PRASAD SINHA @ RAJESSHWAR PRASAD SINGH, Son of Late Laxmi Singh, village Jamin Mathia, PS Minapur, Dist. Muzaffarpur, at present resident of Kanti Kaswa, PS Kanti, Dist. Muzaffarpur – petitioner. with CWJC No.6471 of 2004 MAHADEO RAI, son of Dukhit Rai, village and PS Kanti, Dist. Muzaffarpur - Petitioner. with CWJC No.6472 of 2004 MUKTESHWAR MISHRA, son of Surya Mishra, resident of Kanti Kaswa, PS Kanti, District Muzaffarpur - Petitioner. with CWJC No.6481 of 2004 GANESH PRASAD SINGH, son of Late Sri Hukum Singh, resident of Bara Hassan, PS Meenapur, Dist. Muzaffarpur, at present resident of Kanti Kaswa, PS Kanti, Dist. Muzaffarpur – Petitioner. with CWJC No.6724 of 2004 RAJ KUMARI DEVI, wife of Ram Ratan Singh, village Bharbari Maniari, Dist. Muzaffarpur, at present residing at Kanti Kaswa, PS Kanti, Dist. Muzaffarpur – Petitioner. with CWJC No.6725 of 2004 RAM NARAIN SINGH, son of Late Bhola Singh, village Kanti Kaswa, PS Kanti, District Muzaffarpur – Petitioner. with CWJC No.6728 of 2004 SANGEETA DEVI, wife of Ajit Kumar Thakur, village Kanti Kaswa, PS Kanti, District Muzaffarpur – Petitioner. with CWJC No.6748 of 2004 SMT.RAM LALI SHARMA, son of Ram Kishore Sharma, village Kanti Kaswa, PS Kanti, Dist. Muzaffarpur – Petitioner. 2 with CWJC No.6761 of 2004 1. Sarita Sharma, wife of Late Deonath Kumar (daughter-in-law), 2. Gyam Prakash, 3. Neelam Bharti, minor son and daughter of Deonath Kumar. 4. Baidyanath Kumar, son of Late Ganesh Thakur, village Kanti Kaswa, PS Kanti, District Muzaffarpur - Petitioners. with CWJC No.6762 of 2004 SARITA DEVI, wife of Sanjay Kumar Jha, resident of Kanti Kaswa, PS Kanti, District Muzaffarpur – Petitioners. Vs. (1) The State of Bihar, (2) The Circle Officer, Kanti, Muzaffarpur. (3) The Collector, Muzaffarpur. (4) The Deputy Collector Land Reforms, Muzaffarpur – Respondents in all the writ petitions. … For the petitioners : Mr. S.K.Verma, Senior Advocate, Mr. Jitendra Kishore Verma and Mr. Harendra Kumar Singh, Advocates. For the State : Ms. Kumari Amrita, SC I (Ceiling) and Mr. Mritunjay Kumar, A.C. S.C. I (Ceiling). 4 13.9.2010 In this batch of thirteen writ petitions, the petitioners are aggrieved by Annexure 1 which is a notice issued by respondent Circle Officer seeking to evict them from the lands of Khata no. 68, Khesra No. 9400, as these lands have been declared to be surplus lands of the land holder Sudhir Chandra Majumdar. Originally the aforesaid plot no. 9400 was not included in the ceiling proceeding. It appears that on the basis of an enquiry made in the midst of ceiling proceeding, plot no. 9400 was included in the ceiling proceeding. Plot no. 9400 runs in the name of Aloka Majumdar, wife of Sudhir Chandra Majumdar, the person against whom land ceiling proceeding was initiated. The petitioners are either the settles or purchases from 3 Aloka Majumdar of small plots of land. The writ petitioners have challenged the said notice on the ground that no show cause was issued by the concerned authority before issuing the notice for eviction. Specific case of the petitioners is that during the ceiling proceeding the concerned authority did not take care to conduct an enquiry under section 5(i)(iii) of the Bihar Land Ceiling Act to ascertain the actual physical possession of the lands in question. It is further submitted that the concerned authorities ought to have conducted an enquiry to find out whether the sale deeds and the settlements made by Aloka Majumdar were for the purpose of defeating the provisions of the Ceiling Act. In absence of following the procedure as laid down under the law, the notices to the petitioners is unwarranted. Besides this, the petitioners also submit that even if the authorities had found that the sale deeds and the settlements have been made in order to defeat the provisions of the Act the authorities concerned ought to have clubbed the lands settled/sold to the petitioner with the lands of the land holder. All these issues obviously have not been high lighted in the counter affidavit, as there appears to be lapses on the part of the authorities, while conducting the ceiling proceeding. In any event of the matter, the petitioners will be at liberty to file an application under section 45B of the act. The Minister will call for the records and after hearing the land-holder in the matter, pass appropriate orders in this matter. The State is directed to decide 4 the matter expeditiously in view of the fact that there is a notice to the petitioners to vacate the disputed land. Until such time as the Minister disposes of the application under section 45B of the act, the Collector, Muzaffarpur is directed not to take possession of the lands of the petitioners. The petitioners are directed to file application under section 45B of the Act within two months from the date of receipt of a copy of this order. A copy of the application filed under section 45B of the Act, along with a copy of this order, should also be made available to the Collector, Muzaffarpur. These writ petitions are disposed of with the aforesaid observations and directions. haque ( Sheema Ali Khan, J.)