SC: "Application for sanction to transfer lands of tenant u/s 43 of Tenancy Act cannot be kept pending indefinitely"

RECENTLY WHILE ADJUDICATING CIVIL APPEAL NO.4123 OF 2012, in respect of the provisions of Section: 43 of Gujarat Tenancy and Agricultural Lands Act, 1948, The Hon'ble Apex Court has ruled certain landmark observations as such that: " The principal part of Section 43 lays down that the land which is purchased by a tenant under the various Sections referred to in Section 43 shall not be transferred in any manner except as permitted in Section 43. The original Section 43 did not contain any such exception. The Gujarat (Amendment) Act No. XVI of 1960 introduced the words “on payment of such amount as the State Government may by general or special order determine” in Section 43.Thus, the section now permits such a transfer by the tenant after the appropriate amount as determined by the State Government by a general or special order is paid by way of consideration, and only after a previous sanction is obtained from the Collector for effecting the transfer. Thus, the State Government has to lay down by general or special order the payment which is required to be made for such a transfer. If the agriculturist is seeking such a transfer, he has to make the necessary payment, and the transfer will be permitted only after a prior sanction is obtained from the Collector.The transfer is however not by way of a right." The Hob'ble Supreme Court of India has further remarked and ordered that " Such application cannot be kept pending indefinitely, but the Collector to decide such applications as far as possible within 90 days from the receipt of the application, on the lines of the judgment of this Court in Patel Raghav Natha (supra). In the event the application is not being decided within 90 days, we expect the Collector to record the reasons why the decision is getting belated. "