Bihar and West Bengal (Transfer of Territories) Act, 1956
No: 40 Dated: Sep, 01 1956
THE BIHAR AND WEST BENGAL (TRANSFER OF TERRITORIES) ACT, 1956
ACT NO. 40 OF 1956
An Act to provide for the transfer of certain territories from Bihar to West Bengal and for matters connected therewith.
BE it enacted by Parliament in the Seventh Year of the Republic of India as follows:—
PART I
PRELIMINARY
1. Short title.—This Act may be called the Bihar and West Bengal (Transfer of Territories) Act, 1956.
2. Definitions.—In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,—
(a) “appointed day” means the 1st day of November, 1956;
(b) “article” means an article of the Constitution;
(c) “assembly constituency”, “council constituency” and “parliamentary constituency” have the same meanings as in the Representation of the People Act, 1950 (43 of 1950);
(d) “Election Commission” means the Election Commission appointed by the President under article 324;
(e) “law” includes any enactment, ordinance, regulation, order, bye-law, rule, scheme, notification or other instrument having the force of law in the whole or in any part of Bihar or West Bengal;
(f) “notified order” means an order published in the Official Gazette;
(g) “population ratio” means such ratio as the Central Government may, by notified order, specify to be the ratio between the population as ascertained at the last census of the State of Bihar excluding the transferred territories and the population as so ascertained of the transferred territories;
(h) “prescribed” means prescribed by rules made under this Act;
(i) “sitting member”, in relation to either House of Parliament or of the Legislature of a State means a person who, immediately before the appointed day, is a member of that House;
(j) “transferred territories” means the territories transferred from the State of Bihar to the State of West Bengal by section 3;
(k) “treasury” includes a sub-treasury.
PART II
TRANSFER OF TERRITORIES
3. Transfer of territories from Bihar to West Bengal.—(1) As from the appointed day, there shall be added to the State of West Bengal the territories which on the 1st day of March, 1956, were comprised in—
(a) that portion of Kishanganj sub-division of Purnea district which lies to the east of the boundary line demarcated in accordance with the provisions of sub-section (2) by an authority appointed in this behalf by the Central Government and that portion of Gopalpur thana of the said district which lies to the east or north, as the case may be, of the said boundary line; and
(b) Purulia sub-division of Manbhum district, excluding Chas thana, Chandil than a and Patamda police station of Barabhum thana;
and the said territories shall thereupon cease to form part of the State of Bihar.
(2) The boundary line referred to in sub-section (1) shall be so demarcated as to be generally two hundred yards to the west of the highway in Purnea district connecting Dalkola, Kishanganj and Chopra with Siliguri in Darjeeling district and two hundered yards to the south or south-west of the highway in Purnea district connecting Dalkola and Karandighi with Raiganj in West Dinajpur district:
Provided that the boundary line shall be so demarcated as not to cut across any village or town:
Provided further that from the point where the first-mentioned highway meets the southern boundary of Kishanganj municipality to the point where it leaves the northern boundary of that municipality, the boundary line shall be the same as the boundary of that municipality on the east.
(3) The territory specified in clause (a) of sub-section (1) shall be included in, and form part of, Darjeeling district, and the territory specified in clause (b) of that sub-section shall form a separate district to be known as Purulia district within Burdwan division of the State of West Bengal.
(4) Nothing in sub-section (3) shall be deemed to affect the power of the State Government to alter after the appointed day the name, extent and boundaries of any district or division in the State of West Bengal.
4. Amendment of First Schedule to the Constitution.—As from the appointed day, in the First Schedule to the Constitution, in Part A, in the description of the territories of States,—
(a) after the paragraph relating to the territory of the State of Assam, the following paragraphs shall be inserted, namely:—
“The territory of the State of Bihar shall comprise the territories which immediately before the commencement of this Constitution were either comprised in the Province of Bihar or were being administered as if they formed part of that Province, but shall not include the territories specified in sub-section (1) of section 3 of the Bihar and West Bengal (Transfer of Territories) Act, 1956.
The territory of the State of West Bengal shall comprise the territories which immediately before the commencement of this Constitution were either comprised in the Province of West Bengal or were being administered as if they formed part of that Province and the territory of Chandernagore as defined in clause (c) of section 2 of the Chandernagore (Merger) Act, 1954, and also the territories specified in sub-section (1) of section 3 of the Bihar and West Bengal (Transfer of Territories) Act, 1956.”;
(b) in the 1st paragraph, the words, brackets, letter and figures “and in the case of the State of West Bengal, shall also comprise the territory of Chandernag