Anchal Bhusan Bose And Ors. vs The State Of West Bengal And Ors. on 14 May, 1976
51. Banerjee, J., also struck down Section 14-P of the West Bengal Act XII of 1972 following the decision in Kunjkutty v. State of Kerala, . Section 85 of the Kerala Land Reforms Act, 1964 made provisions for surrender of' excess land. It provided that any land held in excess of the ceiling area between specified dates is to be regarded as land still held by the raiyat for purposes of ceiling, even if the raiyat had made any transfer of land during the period. At the same time, the Kerala Act provided that the rights of the transferees would not be affected. It was held that this provision hit the second proviso to Article, 31-A(1). The reason was that while the transfers of land for purposes of ceiling are ignored and the transferees' rights are protected, there would be deprivation of land without payment of market value if the raiyat acquired further land at considerably higher rate.