Court : Kolkata
Reported in : 39Ind.Cas.934
Fletcher, J.1. These are three appeals by the defendant, the Secretary of State for India in Council.2. The three suits out of which these appeals arise were brought by the plaintiffs in the Court of the Subordinate Judge of Midnapur under the provisions of Section 104H of the Bengal Tenancy Act. The plaintiffs at a recent Settlement had been entered in the Record of Rights as tenure-holders. Accordingly they brought these suits asking that they were raiyats with a right of occupancy in lands in question. At the trial the learned Subordinate Judge decided in their favour. Hence the present appeals by the appellant. The sole question involved in these appeals is, therefore, what is the status of the plaintiffs. In suits of this nature one has to bear in mind what are the rules laid down by Statute for determining whether the person is a tenure-holder or a raiyat.3. Section 5, Sub-section 1, of the Bengal Tenancy Act provides that 'tenure-holder' means primarily a person who has acquired...
Tag this Judgment!Court : Kolkata
Reported in : 39Ind.Cas.409
1. These eight appeals arise out of as many suits which were tried togather and determined by one judgment in the Court of first instance. The appeals have similarly been heard together in this Court.2. The lands in question are situated within an estate known as the Jalpai Mahal of Perganna Jalamutha bearing No. 2715, formerly No. 130, on the revenue roll of the District of Midnapur. From Exhibit H 8 and Exhibit S we learn that these Jalpai lands were at one time part of the temporarily settled estate Jalamutha, the property of the zemindars of Garh Basudebpur, but being an area bordering on the sea, were taken possession of by Government for the purposes of its manufacture of salt.3. In 1864 the manufacture of salt was abandoned and the Jalpai Mahal, therefore, passed from the hands of the salt agency on to the hands of the Land Revenue Authorities. For the first year 1271 the Collector, apparently as a temporary measure, leased the mahal to one Narayan Prosad Maiti at a rent of Rs. ...
Tag this Judgment!Court : Kolkata
Reported in : (1914)ILR41Cal130
Jenkins, C.J.1. This is a suit whereby the plaintiffs seek to vindicate a right which they claim under a putni lease in their favour executed in 1870. By that document it was provided on the part of the zemindar as follows: 'We (that is the zemindars) shall pay the Government revenue, poolbundi and dak cesses, you having nothing to do with the same.' The Embankment Acts in force at that time were XXXII of 1855 (Government of India) and Act VII of 1866 (Government of Bengal), and for the purposes of this argument it has been assumed that the obligation in respect of embankment charges was on the zemindars at that time. Whether that was so under Act VII of 1866 in all cases we need not now determine, but we will assume, for the purpose of this case, the correctness of the view that the stipulation which I have read gave practical effect to the state of the law as it then stood. These two Acts have been repealed, and that now in force is Act II of 1882 of the Bengal Legislature. There are...
Tag this Judgment!Court : Kolkata
Reported in : 13Ind.Cas.513
Caspersz, J.1. The plaintiff is the Maharaja of Hill Tipperah. He also owns what the plaint describes as 'a vast zemindari' that is Chakla Roshanabad in the British District; of Tipperah. The suit giving rise to this second appeal was brought by the Maharaja to have his zemmdari title declared in respect of a tank and its banks and for khas-possession and masne profits. In the alternative, plaintiff claimed to have the lands assessed with fair rent. The defence was that the tank had been niskar (rent-free) since the time of the defendant's ancestor in virtue of a sanad chati dated the 14th Magh 1259 (26th January 1850), granted by the pre-decessor of the plaintiff.2. The first Court dismissed the suit on the ground of limitation; and, on appeal, the District Judge has arrived at the same conclusion.3. The plaintiff appeals. This is one of many appeals involving the same question, the light to assess the niskar tanks in the Chakla. We have heard the arguments in this appeal and in Mahar...
Tag this Judgment!Court : Kolkata
Reported in : (1912)ILR39Cal439
Caspersz, J.1. The plaintiff is the Maharaja of Hill Tipperah. He also owns what the plaint describes as 'a vast zamindari,' that is, Chakla Roshanabad in the British district of Tipperah. The suit giving rise to this second appeal was brought by the Maharaja to have his zamindari title declared in respect of a tank and its banks and for khas possession and mesne profits. In the alternative, plaintiff claimed to have the lands assessed with fair rent. The defence was that the tank had been niskar (rent-free) since the time of the defendant's ancestor in virtue of a sanad chiti, dated the 14th Magh 1259(26th January 1850),granted by the predecessor of the plaintiff.2. The first Court dismissed the suit on the ground of limitation; and, on appeal, the District Judge has arrived at the same conclusion.3. The plaintiff appeals. This is one of many appeals involving the same question--the right to assess the niskar tanks in the chakla. We have heard the arguments in this appeal and in appea...
Tag this Judgment!Court : Kolkata
Reported in : 4Ind.Cas.535
1. On the 5th April 1906, this Court came to the conclusion that the plaintiffs were raiyats and not tenure holders and the defendant was an under-raiyat. The statutory right to continue in possession which is conferred by the Bengal Tenancy Act on occupancy raiyats cannot be availed of by the defendant. The rights and liabilities of the parties must, therefore, be governed by Sections 48 and 49 of the Bengal Tenancy Act.2. There was a written lease for nine years apparently with reference to the law as laid down in Section 85 of the Bengal Tenancy Act. By that lease, it was agreed that the tenancy of the defendant would expire at the end of nine years. The present suit was instituted after the expiry of those nine years and the only defence that the defendant could raise was that under a clause in the lease, he might apply for re-settlement and the plaintiff would be bound to grant him a re-settlement without any bonus.3. No defence could be raised on the ground that the defendant had...
Tag this Judgment!Court : Kolkata
Reported in : (1907)ILR34Cal470
Mookerjee and Holmwood, JJ.1. The appellant, the Maharaja of Durbhanga, commenced the action, out of which the present appeal arises, in the Court of the Subordinate Judge of Purneah, against the Secretary of State for India in Council and the Bengal and North-Western Railway Company, for an injunction, for damages on account of permanent injury to a ferry and for other incidental reliefs. The Company defendants are the owners of a Railway line which, some time before 1898, was proposed to be extended from Hajipur to Katihar; the extension passes through the zamindary of the plaintiff, and had to be carried across the river Koshi, which flows through that zamindary. A bridge had consequently to be constructed across the river, the banks and bed of which are part and parcel of the estate of the plaintiff. The Maharaja had a ferry across the river, near the place where the bridge has now been constructed, and it is alleged that this ferry, which had existed for many years past, has-been ...
Tag this Judgment!Court : US Supreme Court
Walker v. New Mexico & Southern Pacific R. Co. - 165 U.S. 593 (1897) U.S. Supreme Court Walker v. New Mexico & Southern Pacific R. Co., 165 U.S. 593 (1897) Walker v. New Mexico and Southern Pacific Railroad Company No. 171 Argued January 26, 1897 Decided March 1, 1897 165 U.S. 593 ERROR TO THE SUPREME COURT OF THE TERRITORY OF NEW MEXICO Syllabus The Act of April 4, 1874, c. 80, legislating for all the territories, secures to their inhabitants all the rights of trial by jury as they existed at the common law. It is within the power of a legislature of a territory to provide that, on a trial of a common law action, the court may, in addition to the general verdict, require specific answers to special interrogatories, and when a conflict is found between the two, render such judgment as the answers to the special questions compel. The doctrine of the civil law and that of the common law touching the respective rights and duties of proprietors of upper and lower land...
Tag this Judgment!Court : Kolkata
Reported in : (1895)ILR22Cal244
Ghose and Gordon, JJ.1. This was a suit for assessment of rent. The facts which led up to it are thus clearly stated in the judgment of the Subordinate Judge: 'The plaintiff-appellant was one of the proprietors of the estate in which the land sought to be assessed to rent is situated. The estate was in 1885 sold for arrears of Government revenue and purchased by one Prosonno Kumar Shamant and the plaintiff repurchased it from Prosonno Kumar Shamant in 1886. He applied under Chapter X of the Bengal Tenancy Act for the measurement of the mehal and the preparation of a record of rights, and a Revenue Officer was deputed to make the measurement and prepare a record of rights. The land to which the suit relates was found by the Revenue Officer to form the slope of an old embankment and as such to be mal, land. But as no rent, it was found, was over paid for it, it was entered as mal land held by the defendant as lakhiraj under colour of certain sanads. The plaintiff appealed to the Special ...
Tag this Judgment!Court : Kolkata
Reported in : (1893)ILR20Cal579
Prinsep and Beverley, JJ.1. The minor Maharaja of Burdwan, whose estates are under the Court of Wards, has, under Section 101, Sub-section 2(a) of the Bengal Tenancy Act, obtained an order from Government directing proceedings under Chapter X of that Act in respect of an estate in the southern part of the district of Midnapore.2. The result of this measurement having prima facie shown that the lands held by the ryots are in excess of the areas specified in their rent receipts and the zemindari papers, an application was made under Section 104, Sub-section 2 to the Settlement Officer to settle a fair and equitable rent in respect of such lands as are in excess of those for which they were paying rent.3. The tenants--and there are 159 of them in the case now in appeal before us--represented that their lands had been held in jote since the time of their respective ancestors, that they had always been in possession and enjoyment of the lands within their present boundaries, that they had n...
Tag this Judgment!