Privy Purse - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition privy-purse

Definition :

Privy purse, is the sum fixed by the Government of India for covering the expenses of each of the rulers of former Indian States and their families in consideration of their agreement of merger in the Indian Union, A Commentary on the Constitution of India, Durga Das Basu, Vol. 4, p. 369.

Privy purse, the income set apart for the sovereign's personal use. See CIVIL LIST.

The periodical payment of money by the Govern-ment to a Ruler of a former Indian State as privy purse all political considerations and under political sanctions and not under a right legally enforceable in any municipal court is strictly a political pension within the meaning of s. 60(1)(g) of the Code of Civil Procedure. The use of the expression 'privy purse' instead of the expression 'pension' is due to historical reasons. The privy purse satisfies all the essential characteristics of a political pension, and as such, is protected from execution under s. 60(1)(g), Code of Civil Procedure. Moreover, an amount of the privy purse receivable from the Government cannot be said to be a debt or other property over which or the proceeds of which he has disposing power within the main part of s. 60(1), Code of Civil Procedure, Nawab Usmanali Khan v. Sagar Mal, AIR 1965 SC 1798 (1802): (1965) 3 SCR 207; see also Ragunandan Rao Ganpatrao v. Union of India, AIR 1993 SC 1267. [Civil PC, 1908 s. 60(i)(g)]