88. Procedure when dispute or doubt exists as to whether any land forms part of a parent estate.
(1)If a dispute or doubt is found to exist as to whether any land forms part of a parent estate, the Deputy Collector shall, after due notice to the parties interested, enquire into the fact of possession, and shall report his conclusions to the Collector; and thereupon the Collector shall dispose of the matter as follows:-(a)he may order that the partition case be struck off the file, if such an order appears to him advisable, and whether the possession of the disputed land is with the proprietors of the parent estate or otherwise; or(b)he may order that the partition shall proceed, and that the disputed land be treated as part of the estate under partition, if the possession of such land is with the proprietors of the parent estate and the claim of the other parties to the right in such land appears to him untenable; or(c)he may order that the partition shall proceed, but that the disputed land shall not be treated as part of the estate under partition, if the possession of such land is with the other parties and the claim of the proprietors of the parent estate to the right in such land appears to him untenable:Provided as follows:-(i)if a claim to land alleged to be in dispute is filed after the Deputy Collector proceeds under Section 57 to determine how the lands of the parent estate shall be partitioned into the separate estates, the claim shall not be enquired into under this Section unless the delay on the part of the claimant is explained to the satisfaction of the Deputy Collector;(ii)no partition shall be made in any case mentioned in this Section if such partition would involve the assignment to any separate estate of such a quantity of the disputed land that the removal of such land from such estate at any subsequent time would, in the opinion of the Collector, endanger the safety of the land-revenue for which such estate would be liable after the partition.(2)If a partition case is struck off the file under clause (a) of this Section, no fresh application for partition shall be admitted unless and until the applicant shows that the dispute or doubt aforesaid has been decided by a Court of competent jurisdiction, or has been amicably settled; but if a fresh application is admitted, the proceedings shall be revived from the point at which they were interrupted.
