Tenure, cannot be equated with 'terms and con-ditions of services' or payment of gravity or pension. Tenure when followed by words of office, means term of office, Punjab University v. Khalsa College, Amritsar, AIR 1971 P&H 479: 1971 Cur LJ 334.
Means a right, term, or mode of holding lands or tenements in subordination to a superior; in fendal times, real property was held predominantly as part of a tenure system, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn., p. 1481.
Tenure, the mode of holding property. The only tenures in land now existing with a few unimpor-tant exceptions are (1) free and common socage in fee-simple, including enfranchised copyhold, which is subject to paramount incidents; and (2) a term of years absolute (see LAND). The idea of tenure or holding is said to derive from feudalism, which separated the dominium directum (the dominion of the soil), which it placed mediately, or immediately, in the Crown, from the dominium utile (the possessory title), the right to use the profits in the soil, designated by the term 'seisin,' which is the highest interest a subject can acquire. As to tenures generally, see 2 Bl. Com. 59 et seq.
Without tracing the origin of tenure back into remote antiquity, it is ascertained that there were origin-ally two modes of holding land, viz.:--(1) Allodial (from los, signifying lot), over which the owner had entire and irresponsible dominion, which he could dispose of at his own pleasure, or transmit as an inheritance to his children. The land was also attachable to answer the owner's debts, and could also be made available for commercial enterprise. Such tenure was acquired by the distribution of lands by lot among the Franks. (2) Feudal (from od, possession, or estate, and feo, wages, pay), over which the owner had but a conditional dominion, acknowledging a superior lord, upon whose pleasure the tenure precariously depended, and without whose consent nothing could be done. And this is the groundwork of the feudal system, which displaced the laws obtaining in this country at the time of the Norman Conquest.
Out of feudalism arose the maxim, that all lands in this kingdom were originally granted by our kings, and held mediately or immediately of the king, as lord paramount, in consideration of certain services to be rendered by the holder. There is then no allodial land in England. Those who held immediately from the king were called tenants in capite (in chief), which was the most honourable tenure. This was of two kinds, either ut de honore, where the land was held of the king as proprietor of some honour, castle, or manor, or ut de corona, where it was held of him in right of the Crown itself. When these tenants granted portions of their lands to inferior persons they were called mesne (middle) lords or barons, with regard to such inferior holders, who were styled tenants paravail, the ultimate tenant in possession, because they were supposed to make avail or profit of the land. The lands were called feuds (feoda), either proper, which were purely military, given militi' gratia to persons qualified for military service; or improper, which did not, in point of acquisition, services, and the like, strictly conform to the nature of a mere military feud, such as those that were sold and bartered for any equivalent, or granted free from all circumstances, or in consideration of any certain services.
Knight service proper, or tenure in chivalry, was the original and most honourable species of tenure created by a determinate quantity of land called a knight's fee. Its extent was twelve plough lands, that is, as much land as could be reasonably ploghed in one year by twelve ploughs, or, accord-ing to other authorities, 800 acres of land, and others say 680, and its value in those times was 28l. per annum. This tenure was granted by words of pure donation, dedi et concessi (I have given and granted); transferred by investiture, i.e., by a solemn and public delivery of the very land itself by the lord to a vassal, in the presence of his other vassals, and perfected by homage and fealty; homage being the acknowledgment of tenure, and faculty the solemn oath made by the vassal of fidelity and attachment to the lord.
The owner of a knight's fee was bound to attend the lord to the wars on horseback, armed as a knight, for forty days in every year, if called upon, and this attendance was his rent or service for the land he held, but the service was usually commuted by payment in the form of escuage or scutage. Among the incidents of this tenure were reliefs or payments upon succession aids, or contributions to the lord, wardships and marriage of heirs succeeding in infancy and escheat.
Grand serjeanty was another species of tenure which some writes think was superior to knight-service, whereby the tenant was bound, instead of serving the king generally in the wars, to do him some special, certain, and honorary service in person, as to be marshal of his host, or high steward of England, or to carry his banner or his sword, or to be his butler, champion, or other officer at his coronation. In most other respects it was similar to knight-service, only he was not bound to pay aid or escuage; and when a tenant by knight-service paid 5l. for a relief, a tenant by grant serjeanty paid one year's value of his land, were it much or little.
At last these military tenures, together with all their grievances, were destroyed at the Restoration. The statute 12 Car. 2, c. 24, enacted that the Court of award and liveries, and all wardships, liveries, primer seisins and ouster-lemains, values, and forfeitures of marriage, by reason of any tenure of the king or others, be totally taken away. And that all fines for alienations, tenures by homage, knight-service, and escuage, and also aids for marrying the daughter or knighting the son, and all tenures of the king in capite, be likewise taken away; and that all sorts of tenures held o the king or others be turned into free and common socage, save only tenures in frankalmoigne, tenures by copy of Court roll, and honorary services of grand serjeanty; and that all tenures which shall be created by the king, his heirs or successors, in future shall be free and common socage.
The other subdivision of rank tenement is free socage [soca, Lat.], which, most probably, means plough-service. It is distinguished from knight-service in this respect, that it is held by a certain determinate duty; whereas we have seen that the tenure in chivalry or knight-service was uncertain and indeterminate. These free socage tenures are said by some persons to be the relics of Saxon liberty, which were left untouched by the oppressive hand of the Norman.
Included among free socage tenures were petit serjeanty tenure in burgage, and gavelkind.
(1) Petit serjeanty [parva serjeantia, Lat.] greatly resembles grand serjeanty, for as the latter is a personal service, the former is a rent or render, both tending to some purpose concerning the king's person. the service in petit serjeanty is the rendering annually to the king some small implement of war, as a sword, a buckler, a bow without a string, or the like. Both the tenures in serjeanty must be held from the Crown. The lands and property which were granted to the Dukes of Marlborough and Wellington for their brilliant military services are held in petit serjeanty, each rendering annually a small flag or ensign, which is deposited in Windsor Castle. Existing incidents of tenures in grand and petit serjeanty have been saved as incidents in free and common socage by the Law of Property Act, 1922, s. 136.
(2) Tenure in burgage [burgus, Lat.] (now abolished, see infra) is where houses, or lands which were formerly the site of houses, in an ancient borough are held of some lord by a certain rent. There were a great many customs affecting these tenures, the most remarkable of which was the custom of borough-English, evidently of Saxon origin, and so named to distinguish it from the Norman customs. See BOROUGH-ENGLISH.
(3) Gavelkind (gyfe-eal-kyn, given to all the kindred). See GAVELKIND (now abolished, see infra).
The other great class of tenements was villenage, which was subdivided into pure and privileged villenage.
Pure villenage was the origin of the present copyhold tenures, or tenure by copy of Court roll, at the will of the lord. See MANOR; COPYHOLD; HERIOT.
Privileged villenage, sometimes called villein-socage, is where lands have been held of the Crown from the Conquest. This was an exalted species of copyhold, held according to custom, and not according to the mere will of the lord. It subsisted until 1926 under the name of tenure in ancient demesne, which consisted of those lands or manors that appeared in Domesday Book to have been actually in the possession of the Crow in in the reign of Edward the Confessor or William the Conqueror. These tenants were esteemed highly privileged, for they could not be compelled to relinquish their lands at the will of their superior, et ideo dicuntur liberi. This tenure was not abolished by the 1 Car. 2, c. 24.
Tenures in ancient demesne were, it has been said, of three kinds:
(1) Tenures in ancient demesne (properly so called), which was a free holing by grant from the Crown. The tenants were bound, in respect of their lands, to perform some of the better sort of certain villein services, which were commuted into money rents.
(2) Privileged copyholds, customary freeholds or free copyholds, held of a manor, which was ancient demesne, according to the custom of the manor, but not of the lord's will. These lands were in fact copyholds, and therefore the term customary freeholds is not strictly correct; for although the tenants had an interest nearly as good as freehold, yet they had not a freehold interest.
(3) Copyholds of base tenure were lands of a manor, which was ancient demesne, but held merely at the lord's will.
There is, however, a good deal of confusion in the books as to ancient demesne; see ANCIENT DEMESNE, and the authorities there referred to.
The old Saxon ecclesiastical tenures, which were continued under the Normans, are these:
(1) Frankalmoigne [free alms], by which religious corporations and their successors held lands of the donor, without any service other than the praying for the souls of the donor and his heirs. See FRANK-ALMOIGNE.
(2) Tenure by divine service, to which was annexed some special divine service, as to sing so many masses, to distribute a certain sum in alms, etc., which were contradistinguished from free alms; for if unperformed the lord could distrain without complaining to the visitor.
The statute 12 Car. 2, c. 24, excepts these spiritual tenures from abolition, so that many were subsisting in 1925, but only the Crown could create them in modern times.
The Law of Property Acts, 1922 and 1925, extinguished the customs of borough-English and gavelkind and all tenures which were not immediately before the 1st January, 1926, freehold or leasehold, grand or petty serjeanty, or frankalmoigne and converted them nominally, subject to the provisions of these Acts, into free and common socage, or leasehold, and in the case of copyholds, excepting and reserving to the lord his property and rights, if any, to mines and minerals, franchises and privileges, etc., set out in the 12th Sch., s. 5, of the Law of Property Act, 1925. See COPYHOLD; ESCHEAT.
Terce, thirds; Scots term. See WIDOW'S TERCE.
Tenure means the period for which an incumbent of office holds it, Union of India v. Tulsiram Patel, AIR 1985 SC 1416: (1985) 3 SCC 398: (1985) Supp 2 SCR 131.
Tenure means a term during which an office is held. It is a condition of holding the office. Once a person is appointed to a tenure post, his appointment to the said office begins when he joins and it comes to an end on the completion of the tenure unless curtailed on justifiable grounds. Such a person does not superannuate, he only goes out of the office on completion of his tenure, L.P. Agarwal v. Union of India, AIR 1992 SC 1872 (1877): (1992) 3 SCC 526.
In service jurisprudence the word 'tenure' has acquired a legal sense or connotation which may mean a fixed term during which an office is held, Yeshwant Singh Kothari v. State Bank of Indore, 1993 Supp (2) SCC 592 (597).
1. A right, term, or mode of building lands or tenements in subordination to a superior
2. A peculiar feudal mode of holding lands, such as socage, gavelkind, villeinage and frankalmoign, Black's Law Dictionary, 7th Edn.