The Bihar and West Bengal (Transfer of Territories) Act, 1956

This Act may be called the Bihar and West Bengal (Transfer of Territories)Act, 1956.

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 thesame meanings as in the Representation of the People Act, 1950 (43 of 1950); (d) "Election Commission" means the Election Commission appointed by the President underarticle 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 WestBengal; (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 Biharexcluding 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 Statemeans 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 ofWest Bengal by section 3; (k) "treasury" includes a sub-treasury.

(1) As from the appointed day, there shallbe added to the State of West Bengal the territories which on the 1st day of March, 1956, werecomprised in (a) that portion of Kishanganj sub-division of Purnea district which lies to the east of theboundary line demarcated in accordance with the provisions of sub-section (2) by an authorityappointed in this behalf by the Central Government and that portion of Gopalpur thana of the saiddistrict 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 Patamdapolice 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 twohundred yards to the west of the highway in Purnea district connecting Dalkola, Kishanganj and Choprawith Siliguri in Darjeeling district and two hundered yards to the south or south-west of the highway inPurnea 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 boundaryof Kishanganj municipality to the point where it leaves the northern boundary of that municipality, theboundary 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 districtto 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 alterafter the appointed day the name, extent and boundaries of any district or division in the State of WestBengal.

As from the appointed day, in the FirstSchedule 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 paragraphsshall be inserted, namely: "The territory of the State of Bihar shall comprise the territories which immediately beforethe commencement of this Constitution were either comprised in the Province of Bihar or werebeing administered as if they formed part of that Province, but shall not include the territoriesspecified 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 immediatelybefore the commencement of this Constitution were either comprised in the Province of WestBengal or were being administered as if they formed part of that Province and the territory ofChandernagore 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 ofWest Bengal, shall also comprise the territory of Chandernagore as defined in clause (c) of section 2of the Chandernagore (Merger) Act, 1954," shall be omitted.

As from the appointed day, in the FourthSchedule to the Constitution, in the Table of Seats, for the entries in the second column relating, to Biharand West Bengal, the entries "22" and "16" shall, respectively, be substituted.