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The appellant is a jagirdar and evidently possesses considerable property. The respondent no. 1 was for some time her karbhari (manager of her estate). While he was occupying that position he obtained from her a sale deed on October 31, 1950, in respect of both these fields. According to the appellant she received no consideration for the transaction. However, that is not material. Shortly thereafter, the appellant made an application to the Mamlatdar, Deodar, for a declaration that the sale deed was invalid as being in contravention of ss. 63 and 64 of the Act. It would appear that at about the same time certain villages of Duchakwada made an application before the Collector, Banaskantha, under s. 84 of the Act for the summary eviction of the respondent no. 1 on the ground that the transaction was rendered void by virtue of the provisions of ss. 63 and 64 of the Act and also seeking the reservation of Survey No. 260 for grazing purposes. It seems that the appellant's application also went before the Collector, inasmuch as the order he made dealt with the appellant's contention also. It ran thus:

To my mind the following questions arise in this case: (i) Whether any proceedings started on the application of the villagers for setting aside the sale deed and the correction of the record, can be said to be proceedings under s. 84 of the Act. (ii) Whether the Collector, in such proceedings, can make a declaration, distinct from deciding or making a decision, about the invalidity of the sale deed or whether be can merely decide about the invalidity of the sale deed in order to form an opinion whether the person proceeded against was in possession of the land unauthorisedly or wrongfully and therefore should be evicted or not. (iii) Whether the order of the Collector, be it of declaration or of mere decision about the invalidity of the sale deed with respect to sale of plot no. 260, had become final before the coming into force of the provisions of s. 84A of the Act on August 1, 1956. (iv) If such order had become final, whether that affects the operation of s. 48A in this case. On the first point it may be assumed that the proceedings before the Collector in 1952 were pro-

It is clear therefore that though the Collector has necessarily, in certain proceedings under s. 84 of the Act, to record a finding that certain sale deed is invalid and consequently the person in possession, on its basis, is in unauthorised possession, he has no power to formally declare the sale deed to be invalid. Ordinarily it is for the Civil Court to make a formal declaration about the validity of a deed. It is only when any other Act specifically empowers a certain officer or Court to declare a certain deed invalid that that Court or officer would have the power to make such a declaration. It follows that the Collector could not, in proceedings under s. 84 of the Act, make a declaration about a sale deed to be invalid. All what he decided by his order dated November, 18, 1952 was that in view of the provisions of law the sale deed in favour of respondent no. 1 was invalid. The appellant must have realised that the decision of the Collector could not amount to the setting aside of the sale deed declaring it to be invalid and so she instituted a Civil Suit in 1953 for a declaration that the sale deed was null and void and for the recovery of possession over the properties included in the sale deed. This suit was dismissed under O.IX, r. 8 read with O.XVII, r. 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure. The order of the Collector deciding that the sale deed was invalid had not even become final by the time s. 84A was introduced in the Act on August 1, 1956. On July 2, 1956 the High Court remanded the matter to the Revenue Tribunal for decision according to law. The Tribunal passed its order on June 3, 1957.

It follows therefore that apart from the consideration already mentioned that the Collector had no power to declare a sale deed invalid while dealing with a matter under s. 84 of the Act, that order had not become final by August 1, 1956 and that therefore the respondent could take advantage of the provisions of s. 84A. He could have his sale deed which was executed between December 28, 1948 and June 15, 1955 validated on payment of the requisite penalty under sub-s. (1) of s. 84A. This section empowers the Mamlatdar to issue the certificate of validity and by sub-s. (3) provides that the Mam-