Behind a land dispute

A case involving a land dispute between Mala Anand, the wife of the Chief Justice of India, and the Madhya Pradesh government raises questions about the conduct of the judiciary although the Chief Justice himself is not directly involved in the matter. After the death of Girdhari Singh and Yadunath Singh, in 1956 and 1960 respectively, their sole heir, Sushila Singh, mother of Mala Anand, was asked by the village Tehsildar to pay the land revenue. Sushila Singh and Mala Anand waited till February 1993 to file a suit in the Chanderi civil court, Guna, to challenge the government's 1973 decision to confiscate their land. According to informed sources, the case file now preserved at the Chanderi civil court shows that the revenue official had sent the relevant notice to Sushila Singh in 1973 through a registered letter, and given her an opportunity to represent her case b efore actually taking over the land. On September 17, 1996, the civil court adjudged the 1973 proceedings of the land revenue official in Guna taking over the lands as null and void on the ground of failure to give information to the interested parties, and violation of natural justice - si nce it held that Mala Anand and her mother had not been given a fair hearing.