P. Sivasankarasubramania Pillai And ... vs Revenue Divisional Officer, Tuticorin ... on 7 December, 1966
(34) In Narayanan Chettiar v. Secretary of State, 1941-1 Mad LJ 543 = (AIR 1941 Mad 561) the Sub Collector confirmed the revenue sale as there was no application under Sec. 38(1). An attaching creditor filed an application under Regulation VII before the Collector who set aside the Sub Collector's order of confirmation of sale, on the ground of some mistake in the description of the property, and that the property was wrongly sold in one lot instead of two lots fetched was very low. A suit to set aside this order of the District Collector was filed and the same was dismissed by the courts below. On second appeal this dismissal was confirmed by Horwill, J. upholding the power of the District Collector in setting aside the confirmation of the sale of the Sub Collector. The learned Judge observed that when the Collector set aside the sale under Sec. 38(3); his powers "are very much wider than those of Sec. 38(1) and the sale can be set aside for very many more grounds than those mentioned in Sec. 38(1)." The learned Judge also observed that all that is necessary under Sec. 38(3) before setting aside the sale is that the Collector should have reason to think that the sale ought to be set aside, and that, if the Collector had given any substantial reasons why the sale should be set aside his order is good and it is not necessary that the District Collector should find a material irregularity or that the price was unduly low.