In Brief
This case concerns the Maharashtra Agricultural Lands (Ceiling on Holdings) Act, 1961 and whether a registered partition deed executed before the statutory cut-off date of 26 September 1970 can be declared void as "sham" by revenue authorities determining surplus agricultural land. The Supreme Court held that the Collector lacks jurisdiction to declare a pre-cut-off-date partition deed sham and void; such jurisdiction belongs exclusively to civil courts. The Court found that limiting the legal fiction of Section 11 to partitions after the cut-off date is necessary to preserve the significance of the cut-off date itself and prevent revenue authorities from functioning as civil courts without due legal safeguards.
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