Remedies Available Under U.P. Z.A.L.R. Act Shall Continue To Be Available If Original Suit Was Filed Prior To Enforcement Of U.P. Revenue Code, 2006: Allahabad High Court

The Allahabad High Court has held that remedies under the U.P. Zamindari Abolition & Land Reforms Act, 1950 shall continue to be available to an applicant wishing to file a revision against a decree in a suit filed prior to the enforcement of the U.P. Revenue Code, 2006.

“Any repealing law which repeals an earlier law shall not affect the remedies available to a party which were available to the party on the date when the suit was filed. It would continue to be in existence for the litigant just as it was available to him or her on the date of filing the lis. A vested right to go to a higher Court can be taken away by a subsequent enactment if the latter expressly provides or a bare reading of it shows that the right of going to a higher Court as per the earlier law had been by a necessary intendment taken away”, held the division bench comprising of Justice Siddhartha Varma and Justice Vinod Diwakar.

In challenge to a judgment and decree dated 19.08.2014 passed in a suit filed under section 229B of the U.P. Zamindari Abolition & Land Reforms Act, 1950, question regarding maintainability of a revision against such order was raised, which was referred to a larger bench (division bench).

The question of reference before the Court was :

“Whether when Section 231 of the Code specifically states that only such proceedings which were pending before the commencement of the Code would be decided in accordance with provisions of the law under which those proceedings were filed then would an Appeal or Revision against the orders/judgments/ decrees which would be passed in those proceedings be governed by the previous enactment i.e. the U.P. Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act, 1950 or by the provisions of the U.P. Revenue Code, 2006.”

Petitioners argued that since the suit was instituted prior to the commencement of the U.P. Revenue Code, provisions of the U.P. Z.A.L.R. Act shall be applicable to them.

Per contra, counsel for the respondents contended that as per Section 231 of the Revenue Code, all cases, appeals, revisions, reviews shall be decided in accordance to the way the law would have been had the Code not come into force, i.e., decided by the court which was seized of those proceedings.

Examining the provisions of the U.P. Revenue Code, the Court held that as per Section 230(2)(d), remedies available to the party prior to the commencement of the Code would continue to be applicable even after it came into force.

The Court held that Section 231 of the Revenue Code only stated that all the cases pending before the Revenue Courts before the enforcement of the Code, shall be decided in accordance with the provisions of the appropriate law as if the U.P. Revenue Code had not been passed. The Court clarified that the same had no bearings on the provisions of the U.P. Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act, 1951.

“There is no provisions in the new Act which after repealing the U.P. Z.A. & L.R. Act, 1950, snatches from a litigant the right of further remedies as were provided under the U.P. Z.A. & L.R. Act, 1950, and hence we are answering the reference by observing that the Revision which was filed by the petitioner could have been filed and there was no provision in the U.P. Revenue Code, 2006, which had expressly taken away the vested right of having to go to a higher Court by means of a Revision”, held the Court.

Accordingly, the reference was answered.

Case Title: Charan Singh v. State of U.P. and 3 Ors. [WRIT - C No. - 43025 of 2018]

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