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6. The Ceiling Act has provided for fixing the ceiling acres for different areas or regions in the State and any person holding land in excess of the ceiling area fixed for any particular area is deemed to be a surplus holder and under the provisions of the Ceiling Act the land in excess of the ceiling area is delimited as surplus land and it is taken over by the State in which the title vests on possession of such surplus land being taken. If a person held land in excess of the ceiling area on 4-8-1959 and continued to hold the same on 28-1-1962, the appointed day, and further the enquiry was held and concluded during his lifetime and the possession of this surplus land was taken over by the Government, as envisaged by the Ceiling Act, no difficulty arises. It is only a matter of finding out the actual land which was held by the holder and after deducting the land upto the ceiling area from the land which the holder would retain with himself under the different provisions of Ceiling Act, the excess is to be declared as surplus area of which possession is to be taken by the Government. These two cases, however, are not cases of that type and the death of the holder during the enquiry proceedings changes the whole complexion. In order to appreciate the legal position, it would be necessary to take into consideration the object of the Ceiling Act and the various provisions thereof in order to find out whether the Ceiling Act seeks to deprive the legatees or the heirs of their land even if they do not hold land in excess of the ceiling area though the original holder hold surplus land. The object of the Ceiling Act is given in the preamble to the Act which reads as under:

8. Section 3 of the Ceiling Act reiterates the preamble of the Act given at the beginning. Section 4, Sub-section (1) prohibits a person from holding land in excess of the ceiling area as determined in the manner provided by the Ceiling Act. Sub-section (2) of Section 4 provides that subject to the provisions of this Act, all land held by a person in excess of the ceiling area, shall be deemed to be surplus land, and shall be dealt with in the manner provided in the Ceiling Act for surplus land. How the surplus land is to be dealt with is given in Chapter VI of the Ceiling Act. By an explanation to Section 4 (1) it is provided that a person may hold exempted land to any extent. This, however, must be to the exclusion of any other laud which is not exempted. This will be clear from the provisions of Section 7 which apply to a case where a person holds both exempted and other land. If a person holds both exempted and other land, then in determining the surplus land the exempted land is also taken into consideration along with the other land and the surplus is then determined.

"When a thing is to be deemed to be something else it is to be treated as if it is that thing, though in fact it is not." However, the legal fiction has to be applied only for the purpose for which it is Intended and cannot be carried further than that; construing this deeming provision in Sub-section (2) of Section 4, it has only a limited application. The deeming provision refers only to land which is under the Ceiling Act deemed to be surplus land. But for the Ceiling Act, there was no bar to a person holding any amount of land and no land with him could be said to be surplus land. By the Ceiling Act a bar is put on a person holding land in excess of the ceiling area in any particular area and the remaining land, though it is not in fact surplus with the holder, is deemed and declared to be surplus land in the hands of the holder for the purposes of the Ceiling Act so that that surplus land can be taken away by the Government and distributed to the landless persons. The introduction o£ this legal fiction is, therefore, only to this extent and it cannot be applied to mean that it applies with reference to property held on 26-1-1962 by a holder who dies subsequently but before the declaration is made. Section 4 (2) refers to a person who must be living at the date of the determination of the surplus land because the surplus land can only be determined after the enquiry contemplated by Sections 18 to 20 after which a declaration is to be made under Section 21. If the intention of the Ceiling Act was to treat the land in excess of the ceiling area as surplus as on 26-1-1982 irrespective of the existence or non-existence of the person after 26-1-1962, then suitable provisions could have been made requiring the heirs or the legatees to file the return in respect of the property held by the deceased holder as on 26-1-1962 and provision could also have been made for etermining the surplus land on the basis of such return, deeming that person to be alive even at the date or the declaration though he is dead. In the absence of any such provision and looking to the purpose and intent of the Ceiling Act from the other provisions to which we have already referred, it does not appear to us that the surplus land was intended to be determined and declared as on the basis that the holder was alive on 26-1-1962 and continued to live on the date of the declaration.
"3 (1). Save as otherwise provided in this Act, on and from a date to be specified by a notification by the State Government in this behalf, all proprietary rights in an estate, mahal, alienated village or alienated land, as the case may be, in the area specified in the notification, vesting in a proprietor of such an estate, mahal, alienated village, alienated land, or in a person having interest in such proprietary right through tie proprietor, shall pass from such proprietor or such other person to and vest in the State for the purposes of the State free of all encumbrances." By notifications, dates from which the property was to vest in the State were notified and Section 4 of the said Act gives the consequences of such vesting. Thus, by this Act a clear provision has been made that all the properties which are of the categories mentioned in Section 4 (1) and the proprietary rights vest in the State from the specified date and all rights, title and interest vesting in the proprietor or any person having interest in such proprietary right through the proprietor shall cease from that date. It has no reference to the person at all and nothing is to be determined for the purpose of vesting the property in the State. Vesting takes place with immediate effect from the specified date unlike the vesting under the Ceiling Act which can only take place after the declaration is made, the notification is issued and the possession of the property is taken by the State. The vesting under the Ceiling Act takes effect only after certain stages have been cone into and after making an enquiry into the several matters upon which only the ceiling area and the surplus land can be determined. If no restrictions were placed as in Sections 8 and 10 of the Ceiling Act, then the property which would vest even in respect of a person living on 26-1-1962 would be that which would be left as surplus at the date of the declaration and would have no reference to the date 26-1-1962. It is only because of the restrictions put by Sections 8 and 10 of the Ceiling Act that the property of the holder who continues to live till the date of declaration has to be taken for the purposes of determination of the ceiling area and the surplus land as on 26-1-1962. It will thus be seen that 26-1-1962 cannot be taken to be the date for determining the surplus area which vests in the heirs or the legatees after 26-1-1962, but before any declaration could be made.