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TMI Blog1975 (3) TMI 21X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ction 269D(1) on April 21, 1973, for acquisition of the said property. At that stage the petitioner made this application to this court challenging the vires of the new Chapter on the following grounds : (i) The provisions of Chapter XX-A offend article 19(1)(f) of the Constitution as they interfere with the fundamental right of citizens to acquire, hold and dispose of property ; (ii) The right to acquire, hold and dispose of property would carry with it the right of fixing consideration and to bargain for the highest consideration in respect of one's property. That right cannot be abridged by a provision as contained in the impugned Chapter; (iii) The acquisition proceeding taken under section 269D of the Act is not in the interest of general public or for the protection of the interest of any Scheduled Tribe and, therefore, is not within the purview of the reasonable restriction contemplated under sub-article (5) of article 19; (iv) The provisions of Chapter XX-A confer unrestricted, unguided uncanalised power on the authorities to acquire properties of a citizen. They are, therefore, hit by article 14 of the Constitution; (v) The initiation of the proceeding for a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ultural land at prices which correspond to those recorded in the deeds of conveyance; (ii) To curb the practice said to be widespread of benami holding of property for the purpose of tax evasion by debarring the real owner from enforcing his claim on such property in a court of law unless he has declared the income from the property or the property itself for the purposes of income-tax and wealth-tax, or has given notice of his claim to the property to the income-tax authorities; and (iii) To improve the existing arrangements for valuation for purposes of income-tax, wealth-tax and gift-tax laws, of buildings, lands and other assets by augmenting the existing set up of official machinery and enhancing its powers on one hand and by bringing about better discipline over non-official valuers on the other. Sections 269A to 269S have been provided with a view to achieving the first object while section 281A is intended to serve the second problem. The remaining provisions of the Amending Act were intended to deal with the third objective. Though in the writ application several contentions had been raised, at the time of its hearing Mr. Mohanty for the petitioner mainly press ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d in Part IV of the Constitution. Since article 37 holds out a mandate to the State to apply the Directive Principles of State Policy into the process of legislation, a law enacted to implement one or more of the directive principles so enumerated cannot be considered as introducing an unreasonable restriction. A harmonious construction of the two articles has to be adopted to give effect to the constitutional provisions. Legislation giving effect to a directive principle has got to be regarded as a reasonable restriction on the corresponding fundamental right, otherwise the provisions in Part III and Part IV cannot co-exist. In the case of Kesavananda Bharati v. State of Kerala, Ray J. (as the learned Chief Justice then was) observed: " ... Every citizen asserts enjoyment of fundamental rights under the Constitution. It becomes the corresponding duty of every citizen to give effect to fundamental rights of all citizens, dignity of all citizens, by allowing the State to achieve the Directive Principles. The duty of the State is not limited to the protection of individual interest but extends to acts for the achievement of the general welfare in all cases where it can safely a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rgument to appreciate the position that the mischief which the Amending Act of 1972, seeks to hit and eradicate is concentration of land in the hands of a few. Parliament realised that ownership of lands was being concentrated in the hands of a few and while on the one hand there was avoidance of tax and other pubic dues, on the other by the surreptitious process acquisition of lands resulting in concentration of the economic power in the hands of few citizens was going on. One of the principal objectives of the impugned law is to check that evil. The impugned provisions, therefore, squarely come within the ambit of article 31-C of the Constitution and even if we accept the petitioner's contention that the right to acquire, hold and dispose of property conferred under clause (f) of sub-article (1) of article 19 is affected, he is not entitled to raise any challenge. These two contentions of Mr. Mohanty must, therefore, fail. Contention No. 2: We shall now deal with the residuary contention of the petitioner. Entry 82 of List I of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution authorises legislation relating to taxes on income other than agricultural income. Mr. Mohanty's contention ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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