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PUNJAB LAND ADMINISTRATION MANUAL CHAPTER I INTRODUCTORY

PUNJAB LAND ADMINISTRATION MANUAL

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTORY

1. Land revenue not a tax, but rent payable to the State. In the first edition of this work it was contended that the land revenue was a rent and not a land tax, and this view has been retained in the opening paragraphs of the fourth edition of the Settlement Manual. This is not the place to embark upon a summary of the prolonged controversy on the subject; the question was examined with care by the Indian Taxation Enquiry Committee of 1926, which was found itself unable to arrive at any agreed finding. As that committee pointed (See paragraph 53 of this Manual) out “according to the description given by Manual of the fiscal administration of an ancient Hindu State, The main source of the State revenue was a share of the gross produce of all land, varying according to the soil and the labour necessary to cultivate it. In normal times the share varied between one twelfth and one-sixth, but was liable to rise even to one-fourth in times of war or other public calamity. The revenue was collected not from individual cultivators but from the community represented by the headman…. In the early days of Muhammadan administration, the State share of the gross produce demanded by the Hindu kings was converted into the khiraj or tribute payable on land in countries under Muhammadan rule though the share taken was greater than before.” The committee found that the land revenue has ceased to represent a portion of gross produce…. That in the Punjab …….the Government demand is theoretically based on an economic rent, but actually takes many other factors into consideration…Under both Hindu and Muhammadan rule, the State never claimed the absolute or exclusive ownership of the land and definitely recognized the existence of private property in it.”(See paragraph 80 of this Manual).

The General finding of the Committee was that in some cases the revenue was a pure rent and in others it is more difficult to maintain this view. In this province, the theory still holds that the revenue is of the nature of a rent charged by the State as overlord of the land.

Commentary

The term “Rent” includes the payment of land revenue and cesses on behalf of the landlord.”

 

2. Collector, and steward. The officer entrusted with the duty of realizing the land revenue is not a mere rent collector, especially in provinces like the Punjab, where the demand is fixed for a period only, and the State continues to have a direct and immediate interest in the improvement of the land. His position is rather that of the steward of a great landowner. As such, he is bound to respect, and preserve from encroachment by others every private right in the soil which has been created or confirmed by the state. Where the revenue has been fixed for a term only, he has not only to collect it, but also to look forward to a time when it will be revised, and to collect and record in systematic manner statistical information, which will facilitate its equitable reassessment. He must initiate and assist measures to prevent, so far as may be the loss of crops from causes which are in any degree controllable by man, and must prepare in ordinary times for those graver natural calamities which produce intense and widespread scarcity of food. In particular the collector must do everything in his power to conserve the soil of his district and to maintain its fertility. The top –soil contains most of the fertility of the land, but on sloping ground in many parts of the Punjab, especially in districts bordering on the Himalayas and in the Salt range it is being rapidly removed by erosion. Erosion is assisted by the long periods of drought, the short growing periods of grass and the heavy rainstorms characteristics of the Punjab. Conservation of soil is effected by the control of grazing, felling and lopping in uncultivated land and by the embanking and where necessary terracing of cultivated land. Fertility is maintained by ploughing, manuring, cultivation, hoeing, weeding and following, and by suitable rotations of crops. It is the first duty to a farmer to keep his land in good heart, to ensure its stability and if possible to increase its fertility. This is done by the best farmers, but many allow their land to deteriorate.

 

The aim of land policy is the true symbiosis, or permanent association, of man his animals and the land. It is wrong that any man, by slothful cultivation, by excessive grazing, or by exploitation of the surrounding vegetation should imperil the stability of the soil of his own or his neighbors holdings. It is his duty to hand on his fields intact to his successor. The Collector must, therefore, encourage and assist every effort made by right holders to maintain the fertility of their land, to conserve the valuable top-soil, and to develop their estates. In addition he must in co-operation with the Forest, the Agricultural, Veterinary and Co-operative Departments devise means of combating the menace of erosion throughout his district as a whole.

He must encourage and assist every effort made by right holders for the development of their estates. In many parts of the province, such as the colony districts, the State is not only supreme landowner of the soil generally, but also sole landowner of a considerable part of it, and it is the duty of its local representation to administer this property so that it may be profitable to the State as representing the people as a whole, and at the same time beneficial to the colonists, whose prosperity is the first care of a progressive Government.

 

3. Scope of handbook. It is the object of this book to describe how these various functions can best be carried out by the officer incharge of a district. As a revenue officer, he is legally known as the Collector, but the more familiar title of Deputy Commissioner will generally be used in this work. His functions will be described in the several capacities in which he is called upon to act: --

(i)As a recorder of agricultural statistics.

 

(ii)As guardian and registrar of the rights in the soil enjoyed by private persons.

 

(iii)As a collector of the land revenue;

 

(iv)As a promoter of the stability and improvement of landed property;

 

(v)As a custodian of State property;

 

(vi)As a judge between landlords and tenants.

 

The head of a district has many other important duties to perform, but the discussion in this work is confined to his functions in connection with the administration of the land.

 

CHAPTER II

LANDOWNERS AND TENANTS

4. Rural communities. Before describing the machinery of the administration, it is well to say something of the agricultural communities for whose benefit mainly it exists. The reader is supposed to be familiar with the chapters in the Settlement Manual, which deal with “Tenures and the Rights of Landowners” and “The Rights of Tenants.”(Chapters VIII and IX. The former may be usefully supplemented by “Tribal Law in the Punjab” by Roe and Rattigan 4th edition. As regards the other classes found in village communities – the grain dealers, artisans and menials – see paragraphs 130,338 and 390 and as regards rents, see paragraphs 311,312,322,339,344 and 355 of the Settlement Manual , 4th edition) The former may usefully be supplemented by some account of the law of presumption applicable to village lands and of the important restrictions impressed upon landowners of the agricultural class by the passing of the Punjab Alienation ofLand Act, XIII of 1900.

Commentary

Perpetuity cultivation with condition that cultivator will maintain peachy creates relationship of landlord and tenant.

 

5. Punjab, a country of peasant landowners. The Punjab is essentially an agricultural country one-half of which is owned and tilled by peasant landowners. There are a few large proprietors in most districts but in the whole province of number who pay more than Rs. 500 land revenue is less than 2,500. The majority of owners holding in the plains are less than ten acres, in the hills they are mostly under three acres. The bulk of the population of the Punjab consists of landowners and their dependents and their prosperity and contentment must always be the chief solicitude of Government.

 

6. Dangers to peasant ownership from division of holdings and mis-appropriation by money-lenders - There are two grave economic dangers, which beset the ownership of land in small parcels by peasant proprietors. The first of these is the reduction of the size of many holdings below an area sufficient to support a family in comfort. This is due to the operation of the law of inheritance under which sons, on the death of their father, each take an equal share of the family land. It is easy to exaggerate the effect of this law. Most small owners are able to get additional land on rent, and where means of livelihood are scanty, the difficulties in finding brides are apt to prove insuperable. Apart from the unpopular remedy of interfering with the law of inheritance, there are indirect means of mitigating the evil of over population. One has been found in the colonization of large tracts of State land rendered culturable by the construction of new canals. Another has been the increasing diversification of occupations in towns.

The second, and more serious, danger was the transfer of land by sale and mortgage to those whose outlook on life prevented them from cultivating it with their own hands. (See in connection with this subject paragraph 379-381 and 402-406 of the settlement Manual 4th edition)

 

7. Oscillations of opinion on subject - The political advantage of maintaining the existing framework of society, and of keeping the land in the hands of those whose hereditary occupations was tillage, was fully recognized by the first administrators of the Punjab. There followed a time in which the importance of this object was less keenly felt and the possibility of attaining it was denied. The third phase of opinion, which is that now predominant, regards the expropriation of the old landowning tribes with at least as much aversion as did the earliest administrators of the province, maintaining that it is not only politically, but also economically, disadvantageous. The causes of these remarkable oscillations of opinion from a curious chapter in the revenue history of the Punjab, which may be noticed briefly before describing the actual provisions in force at different times regarding pre-emotion and restrictions on the transfer of land.

 

8. Apologetic tone adopted by early administrators as to measures adopted to preserve stability of village communities - While experience acquired elsewhere led shortly after annexation to the adoption of measures to prevent the intrusion of aliens into village communities by the purchase of land, some of the ablest officers held that these measures were open to the reproach of economic unsoundness, and that the prospect of agricultural improvement by the attraction to the soil of the capital of the moneyed classes was being sacrificed to the importance of political stability. IN his commentary on the Punjab Civil Code, Mr. Montgomery felt constrained to apologize for the maintenance of the law of pre-emption. Later, Mr. Cust remarked in his Revenue Manual: “The principle (of pre-emption) is not defended on any economic grounds, but is maintained for social and political reasons,” and contemplated without regret” a gradual process” by which the existing village communities might “melt away and give place to a more modern, and perhaps more politically nice, distribution of property.”

 

9. Causes of increase of transfers. The disposition to look on unlimited power of transfers as an essential feature of proprietary right and a necessity of economic progress was strengthened by the assimilation of the law and procedure of the Punjab with that of the older provinces, which resulted from the extension of the Code of Civil Procedure to the province in 1866, and the establishment of a Chief Court in Lahore in the same year. About the same time the policy of moderation and fixation of the land revenue began to make land attractive as an investment. Titles had been clearly determined, and the moderation of the demand made the ownership of land a source of income. The peasant proprietor found his credit rapidly expanding. The old system of limited borrowing on the security of crops, cattle, and ornaments was supplanted by one of extravagant borrowing on the security of the land.

 

10. Increase looked on as beneficial or at least inevitable. Sales and mortgages of land to money-lenders became a feature of village life. By some this was looked upon with little alarm and even with complacency. It was maintained that the resources of the country would be developed by the application to the improvement of the land of capital of the moneyed classes. Even those who disliked the process, were disposed for a time to look on it as the outcome of an irresistible economic law.

11. Growth of opinion hostile to free transfer. But, with each quinquennium the alienation of land proceeded everywhere at a more rapid rate and in some parts of the country the area which had passed out of the hands of the original owners amounted to a considerable total. The social and political evils likely to spring from the expropriation of the old landowning classes again came to be keenly felt, and acquiescence became increasingly difficult, and ceased to be regarded as inevitable. The policy of laissez faire expounded by the English economists was no longer considered as applicable to every country and stage of society. Experience also showed that the expectation that the new proprietors and mortgages would be improving landlords was not fulfilled. Very few turned out to be anything but rent receivers, and their tenants lacked the devotion and pains-taking labour of peasant owners.

12. Reasons for change of opinion. The interest in primitive institutions aroused by the works of Sir Henry Mayne, and stimulated by the abundant evidence of their survival in India, worked in the same direction. The records of tribal law compiled by Settlement Officers supplied unmistakable evidence that ownership of the modern western type was alien to the ideas of the rural population. It was seen that the Indian conception of property in the soil is that it is vested in family, and not in an individual, and that the owner for the time being is not entitled to dispose of it how and to whom he will.

13. Civil courts accept doctrine of limited ownership - This doctrine invaded the civil courts, which were bound by section 5 of the Punjab Laws Act to decide questions of inheritance, adoption and gifts primarily on evidence of custom, and from 1887 onwards it formed the foundation of a series of decisions by the Chief Court on sales and mortgages by sonless proprietors, adoption, gifts and pre-emption.(See chapter III of “Tribal Law in the Punjab “ By Roe and Rattigan) But these decisions, valuable though they were , did not prove effective restraints on the actions of landowners, and in no way reduced the seriousness of the problem which Government had to face.

 

14. Necessity of restricting credit basis of Punjab Alienation of Land Act. The position was at last accepted that the root of the evil was to be found in the inflation of the peasant owners credit and that the only hope of checking it lay in lessening his powers of borrowing by imposing legal restrictions of the sale and mortgage of land. This policy was embodied in the Punjab Alienation of Land Act, XIII of 1900, the provisions of which will be noticed presently.

15. Classification of measures taken at different times to protect landowners. The measures taken at various times for the protection of the landowners of the Punjab may be classed under the heads: -

(a)The legal enforcement of the custom of pre-emption:

 

(b)The restriction of transfers by landowners belonging to agricultural tribes:

 

(c)The exemption from sale in execution of decree of land and other property of hereditary agriculturists.

 

16. Pre-emption: its nature - The origin of pre-emption is clearly explained in “Tribal Law of the Punjab”. “It has been usual to regard this as a village, not as a tribal, custom and as originating in the Mohammedan law. I think that this is quite an erroneous view, and that pre-emption is merely a corollary of the general principles regulating the succession to, and power of disposal of land. In these matters the holder of the estate for the time being is subject, generally speaking to the control of the group of agnates who would naturally succeed him….. They can , as a general rule, altogether prevent allegations by adoption or gift, or by sale for the holder’s own benefit , it would be only a natural rule that, when a proprietor was compelled by necessity to sell , these agnates should be offered the opportunity of advancing the money required, and thus saving what is really their own property.” (“Tribal Law in the Punjab, by Roe and Rattigan pages 82-83)

 

17. Early provisions in Punjab Civil Code, etc. The first administrators of the Punjab brought a knowledge of the existence of pre-emption in village communities from what is now the united provinces. In 1852 the Board of Administration issued a circular (No. 28 of 1852)requiring a landowner who wished to sell his share to offer it in the first instance to the whole community or to some individual co-parcener at a reasonable price to be fixed by agreement, falling which the revenue officer and three assessors were to determine the fair value. Two years later this instruction was embodied and elaborated in section XIII of the Punjab Civil Code. Pre-emption was there declared to apply to village lands and sites in villages and kasbas occupied by shareholders in the estate and to extend to private sales, sales in execution of decree and foreclosures of mortgage. If none of the owners wished to buy, the hereditary tenants (if any) might exercise the right. Provision was made for the valuation of land in case of dispute by committee appointed by the revenue authorities. Pre-emption suits were to be brought in the civil courts, but any issues as to priority among contending claimants and the value of the land were to be referred for decision to the revenue authorities.The chief Commissioner,in 1856,with the object of preserving the integrity ofvillage communities, extended the right to usufructuary mortgages.(Financial Commissioner’s Circular No. 41 of 1856)

18. Entries in village administration papers. The customs governing pre-emption were also recorded in village administration papers draw up at settlements made before the passing of the Punjab Laws Act, IV of 1872. “In nearly all the old wajib-ul-arz we find a provision securing this right either to the next heirs, or tothe agnates generally, and after them to all members of the village community to the exclusion of strangers.(“Tribal Law of Punjab by Roe and Rattigan page 88)

19. Right restricted by Civil Courts. Two early judgements of the Chief Court robbed pre-emption of most of ties value . The court held thatthe right did not extend to usufructuary mortgages, (Punjab Record case No. 87)except where the village administration paper provided otherwise, and that proprietor by purchase through a stranger to, and at bitter strife with, the original village brother-hood , had as good a title to claim pre-emption as any member of it.(Punjab Record case No. 4)

 

20. Provision of Punjab Act, IV of 1872. The same limitation of the right as regards the transaction in respect of which it exists, and the same extension of it as regards the persons who may claim to exercise it, were unfortunately embodied in the sections of the Punjab Laws Act, IV of 1872, which dealt with pre-emption. That Act, as amended by Act XII of 1878. Provided that the right arises in the case of sales under a decree of otherwise and foreclosures of mortgage, (Section 9)and that unless a custom or contract to the contrary is proved, it exists in all village communities , and extends---

(a)to the village site and houses;

(b)to all lands within the village boundary;

(c)to all transferable rights of occupancy in such lands. (Section 10)

In the absence of custom to the contrary. the right was declared to belong to the following persons in the order stated:-

(a)first, in the case of jointundivided immovable property, to the co-sharers;

(b)secondly, in the case of villages held on ancestral shares, to co-sharers in the village , in order of their relationship to the vendor or mortgagor;

(c)thirdly, if no co-sharer or relation of the vendor or mortgagor claims to exercise such right, to the landowners of the Patti or other sub-division of the village in which the propertyis situate jointly;

(d)fourthly, if the landowner of the Patti or other sub-division make no joint claim to exercise such right, to such landholders, severally;

(e)fifthly, to any landholder of the village;

(f)sixthly, to the tenants (if any) with rights of occupancy in the property;

(g)seventhly, to the tenants(if any ) with rights of occupancy in the village.

In case of transfers of rights of occupancy under section 5 of the Punjab Tenancy Act, XVI of 1887, the prior right of the landlord was secured by section 53 of that Act. If he failed to exercise it, pre-emption belonged, first, t the tenants (if any)having a share in the occupancy right proposed to be sold and secondly, to the other occupancy tenant in the village. (Section 12. By a proviso to the section if Government owned the trees growing on land, it had a right of pre-emption in the land superior to that of any private individual)Where the charkadari tenure prevails(See paragraph 167-170) of the Statement Manual), the adna maliks possessing shares in a well had a right of pre-emption in these shares in preference to the ala malik.(Section 20)

Where tow or more persons were equally entitled to pre-emption, the vendor or mortgagor might determine which of them should exercise it(Section 12). Section 13 to 18 of the Act provided for the enforcement of the right. The matter was left entirely to the civil courts, no provision being made for the reference of any question in dispute to the revenue officer.

21. Interpretation applied as regards customary rights of pre-emption. It will be observed that, as regards the persons entitled to pre-emption, the Act expressly saved custom.(Section 12) But in practice its 12th section was usually taken, both by Settlement Officers and civil courts as, disposing of the whole matter. The entry on the subject usually made by the former in codes of tribal custom(riwaj-iam)was that pre-emption was regulated by the Punjab Laws Act.(“Tribal Law in the Punjab” by Roe and Rattigan page 83) The chief Courts has held that the village administration papers furnish valuable evidence of custom as regards the persons entitled to claim pre-emption.(Punjab Record No. 98 of 1894. See “Tribal Law in the Punjab “ Page 128 and 130)

22. Punjab Act, II of 1905. The recasting of the law of pre-emption with the object of brining it into accord with village custom and ideas became imperative when the Punjab Alienation Land Act came into force the necessary amendments were effected by Punjab Act II of 1905. The right of preemption was declared to exist in respect of agricultural land, as defined in the Punjab Alienation of Land Act, and village immovable propertyi,e. immovable property within the limits of village sites other than agricultural land.(See Section 3(1) and (2) and section 5 of Act II of 1905. The provisions which relate to urban immovable property lie outside the scope of this work.”) It extends to sales of both proprietary and occupancy right in agricultural land.”(Section 3(4) and 11 of Act II of 1905) . In respect of such land , no one has a right of pre-emption except “a member of an agricultural ,” as defined in the Alienation of Land Act . But this is subject to the proviso that “if the vendor is not a member of an agricultural tribe, the rightof pre-emption may be exercised also bya member of the same tribe as the vendor, who is recorded as the owner or as the occupancy tenant of agricultural land in the estate in which the property is situate and has been so recorded for twenty years precious to the date of the sale either in his own name or in that of any agnate who has previously held his agricultural land.(Sections 3(4) and 11 of Act II of 1905)” The most important section of the Ac is section 12, which declares the persons who are entitled to pre-emption and the order in which they can claim it. The intention of sections 22 and 12 of course, is to bring the law into conformity with village custom. Section 12 runs-

Subject to the provisions of section 11(Now see section 15 of Act I of 1913), the right of pre-emption in respect shall vest ----

(a)in the case of the sale of such land or property by a sole owner of occupancy tenant, or when such land or property is held jointly, by the co- sharers in the persons who but for such sale would be entitled to inherit the property in the event of his or their decease, in order of succession;

(b)in thecase of a sale of a share of such land or property held jointly, first in the lineal descendants of the vendor in the male line, in order of succession;

Secondly, in the co-sharers, if any, who are agnates; in order of succession;

Thirdly, in the persons described in sub clause(a) of this sub-section and not herein before provided for;

Fourthly , in the co-sharers, (I) jointly (ii) severally;

(c)If no person having a right of pre-emption under sub-clause (a) or sub –clause (b) seeks to exercise the right---

First, when the sale effects the superior or inferior proprietary right and the superior proprietary right is sold, in the inferior, proprietors, and when the inferior proprietary right is sold in the superior proprietors.

Secondly, in the owners of the Patti or other sub-division of the estate within the limits of which such land or property is situate, (I) jointly, (ii) severally;

Thirdly, in the owners of the estate, (I) jointly (ii) severally;

Fourthly, in the case of a sale of the proprietary right in such land or property, in the tenants(if any)having rights of occupancy in such land or property, (I) jointly, (ii) severally;

Fifthly, in any tenant having a right of occupancy in any agricultural land in the estate within the limits of which the property is situate.

Explanation 1.- In the case of a sale of a right of occupancy, clauses (a) ,(b),and (c) of this sub-section with the exception of sub –clause fourthly of clause (c), shall be applicable.

Explanation 2. – In the case of sale by a female of property to which she has succeeded through her husband , son , brother or father, the word “agnates” in this section shall mean the agnates of the person through whom she has so succeeded.

Chapter IV of the Act deals with procedure. It maintains the jurisdictions of the civil courts. but makes careful provision to prevent pre-emption being used to defeat the objects of the Punjab Alienation of Land Act, XIII of 1900.(Section 20,21,26 and 27 of Act II of 1905)

 

22-A. Punjab Pre-emption Act, 1 of 1913. The experience gained after the passing of the Punjab pre-emption Act of 1905 showed that several alterations and amendments were necessary. In the Punjab the law of preemption must march hand in hand with the law governing the alienation of land; and although the proposal to amend the Act of 1905 originated in the necessities for removing certain ambiguities and defects of drafting and for rendering more precise the application of section 8, one of the main changes introduced, to wit, the change in section 14, was designed to bring the law of pre-emption more closely into line with the Land Alienation Act. As the statutory agriculturist had disappeared from the latter Act, it was felt that the only differentiating restrictions required were in respect of agricultural land sold by the member of an agricultural tribe, and in respect of such land the right of pre-emption was limited to persons who were members of an agricultural tribe in the same group as the vendor. For all other lands membership of an agricultural tribe in itself created no special preferential right Another main change was in section 8. In the Act of 1905 section 8(2) was introduced mainly to protect from pre-emption land required for commercial and industrial purposes, but it was found inadequate to accomplishthe object without the issue of separate notifications by the local Government in the case of each plot concerned. It was, therefore, amplified so as to allow for a general notification exempting all agricultural land sold in good faith for industrial , commercial or residential objects. Punjab Act II of 1905 was, therefore, repealed; and the new Act I of 1913 referred to above it was found that the provisions of the law of pre-emption were being defeated by the purchaser splitting his transaction into two parts by purchasing one kanal of land on the first day and the balance on the second day. If a suit for pre-emption was brought with respect to the second sale by the village proprietors, he could successfully defend the suit on the ground that he acquired proprietary right in the village one day prior to the second purchase. (See case of Nadir Ali Shah versus Wali & C. Published at page 486 of Indian Law Reports Lahore series volume V of 1924) To prevent such cases occurring in the future, a new section, No. 28-A ; was inserted in the main Act by an amending Act. No. II of 1928 which came into force from the Ist December, 1928.By this addition it should be impossible fora purchaser to defeat the law of pre-emption by splitting his transactions into two parts and to retain the property acquired by the seconds purchase, even through he may subsequently lose the property acquired by his first purchase.

 

23. Commissioner’s sanction to transfers to strangers formerly required. There used to be an old rule which required the sanction of the Commissioner to the transfer to a stranger of a share of land in a village community. It was more a device to ensure that reversions had an opportunity of exercising their right of pre-emption than an attempt to restrict freedom of contract. Mr. Cust, in 1860, explained it as follows:” The right of pre-emption is not to be evaded; the sanction of the Commissioner must precede all such mutations and. Within a period of three months from the transfer taking place or being made known to the parties concerned, the validity of the transfer may be dispute by a regular revenue suit under paragraph II, part I, Chapter XIII; of the Punjab Civil Code.”(paragraph 13 of Financial Commissioner’s Book Circular No. XLVII of 1860)

The rule was retained in the instructions on mutation procedure under the first Punjab Land Revenue Act , XXXIII of 1871 . But it was there directed that “if the transferee has obtained possession, and no suit for pre-emption is brought within the term of limitation, or if such suit, when brought is dismissed, mutation of names shall be sanctioned.” This may have had some effect in discouraging transfers to strangers, the tendency being to regard a transaction of the sort as incomplete till it had been recognized by an entry in the record of rights.

 

24. Far-reaching change effected by Punjab Land Alienation Act. The causes which led to the passing of the Punjab Alienation of Land Act, XIII of 1900 , have already been explained. The direct restraints which it imposed on freedom of transfer appeared novel at the time although restrictions on free transfer are found in one form or another in many countries.

25. Scope ofthe Act. The Act came into force on the 8th of June, 1901. It extends to the whole of the Punjab(Section 1(2), but power is given to exempt by notification any area, person, or class of persons wholly or partially from its operation(Section 24). The only exempted district ins Simla, except the ilaqa of Kotgarh in the Kot Khai Tahsil, but all municipal and cantonment areas in other districts have been excluded from the operation of the provisions restricting freedom of transfer(Punjab Government notification No. 16176-R. & A dated 21st June 1919. The provisions forbidding mortgages by way of conditional sale (section 10) and sale in execution of a decree of land belonging to a member of an agricultural tribe(section 16) apply to municipal and cantonment areas.). The Act applies to the rights of occupancy tenants as well as to those of landowners(See section 2(3) of Act XIII of 1900 . As to transfers by occupancy tenants see also chapter V of the Punjab Tenancy Act XVI of 1887). It classifies alienation’s as permanent and temporary. The former includes sales, exchanges, gifts and wills(Section 2(4) Gifts for a religious or charitable purpose , whether made inter vivos by will are not permanent alienation’s for the purpose of the Act,); the later mortgages and leases.

26. Usufructuary and collateral mortgages. Mortgages are broadly divided into usufructuary and collateral mortgages. In the former the mortgagee takes possessions of the mortgaged land, enjoying the rents and paying the land revenue, the difference between the rent and the revenue being regarded as equivalent to the interest on the mortgage debt(This was the almost universal form of usufructuary mortgage in the Punjab before the passing of Act XIII of 1900 . “(Possession means of course possession of the rights of a landlord. The mortgagor was often retained in cultivating possessions as tenant at will under the mortgagee. For the legal definition of usufrctuary mortgage see section 2(5). It embraces cases in which the rent and profits are appropriated not only in liew of interest , but also “in payment of the mortgage –money , or party in lieu of interests and partly in payment of the mortgage money.). In a collateral mortgage the mortgagor retains possession of the land so long as he pays interest and installments of principal according to the terms of the mortgage-deed . If he makes default , the mortgagee can claim to be put in possession.

27. “Members of Agricultural Tribes” And “Agriculturists”. The provisions of the Act which deal with temporary alienation’s only recognize two classes of persons—

(a)Those who are members of agricultural tribes and

(b)Those who are not members of agricultural tribes.

Upon the latter no restrictions of any kind are imposed. Those relating to permanent transfer originally introduced a third class described as –

(c)Agriculturists.

28. Members of Agricultural Tribes” meaning of term.- The first class consists of persons belonging to the tribes notified as “Agricultural” under the powers conferred by section 4 of the Act, and the second obviously includes all other persons. Subject to the exceptions noted below, the lists of agricultural bribes which have been gazette(Punjab Government Notification No. 63, dated 18th April 1904 and Appendix A to Financial Commissioner Standing Order No. 1 –Alienation of Land) comprise every tribe dependent on the land for support which owns any considerable area of land in the district under which its name is shown. Brahmans have been excluded for the present even from the main group of those districts in which they own much land and cultivate with their own hands because they are largely engaged in money-lending and other non-agricultural pursuits. They have been notified in separate groups.

29. “Agriculturists”; meaning of term. The first two groups are in the main natural ones, but the third, or that of “agriculturist” was defined as “a person holding agricultural land who, either in his own name or in the name of his ancestor in the male line, was recorded as the owner of land or as an occupancy tenant in any estate at the first regular settlement; or if the first regular settlement was made in or since the year 1870, then at the first regular settlement or at such previous settlement as the local Government may by order in writing, determine.” The provision was introduced to mitigate what appeared to be the hardship of preventing acquisition by those who were old landowners . Experience proved that it was unsuitable and it was repealed in 1907.

30. Cancelled.

31. Restrictions on sales. There are no restrictions on the purchase of land but only on its sale. The sale by the member of an agricultural tribe to anyone not belonging to such a tribe in the same district requires the sanction of the Deputy Commissioner(Sections 3(1) and (2)). Sanction may be given either before or after a deed of sale has been drawn up and possession given . If sanction is refused the sale takes affect as an usufructuary mortgage in the first of the three forms described below (See paragraphs 40-42 of this manual)for such term not exceeding twenty yearsand on such conditions as the Deputy Commissioner may think reasonable.(Section 14).

32. All agricultural tribes in each district from a single group. For the present all the agricultural tribes in each district, with a few exceptions noted below. Have been notified as forming a single group(Punjab Government notifications No.21-S dated 22nd May 1901 and No. 114, dated 16th July 1902). Members of agricultural tribes have therefore, with these exceptions, full powers of selling and buying inter se within the limits of the district in which they own land . Should this broad system of grouping lead anywhere to the rapid expropriation of one tribe by another, the formation of small groups of tribes my become necessary. Brahmans and other agriculturists in some districts have been declared as separate groups of agricultural tribes within their respective districts from 1909 onwards. (See part B of the appendix to Financial Commissioner’s Standing Order No. 1)

33. Cancelled.

34. Cancelled.

35. Order sanctioning sale does not affect rights of reversions . The executive order by which a Deputy Commissioner sanctions a sale in no way affects any right which reversion’s or other have to contest the validity of the transfer by legal proceedings or to claim pre-emption.(Section 5)

36. Exchanges gifts and wills. All that has been said above of sales applies equally to exchanges , gifts and wills . Death –bed gifts to Brahmans often known as dohli, are not usually regarded as subject to the provisions of the Act. But the amount which can be alienated in this way is limited by custom, and if it is exceeded. The donor’s heir can sue to have the area reduced to what is permissible by tribal law.

37. Instructions as to giving or withholding sanction to sales. The following instructions have been issued by the financial commissioners with the approval of Government as to the considerations, which should influence a Deputy Commissioner in giving or withholding sanction. Subject to the proviso to sub-section (iii) below he need not concern himself with the possible rights of reversions or pre-emptors. –

(i)Sanctions should not be given unless the Deputy Commissioner is satisfied that the transfer is really advantageous to the vendor and his family. If a zamindar depends entirely or mainly on his land, no alienation should ordinarily be allowed which will reduce the land he retains to less than is required for the support of himself and his family.

(ii)Sanction should be given if the Deputy Commissioner is satisfied that there is no intention of evading the Act when the object of the purchase is to obtain.-

(a)A site for a workshop or factory, for building for the accommodation or welfare of persons to be employed in them, for a power installation for working industrial enterprise, the health of persons engaged as laborers or otherwise in connection with such;

(b)A building site close to a town or village site.

(iii)Snction may be given to an alienation of land-

(a)by wealthy zamidars owning much land, for commercial reasons or to improve or consolidate their properties;

(b)by indebted zamindars owning mortgaged land, and desiring to sell a part of their land, in order to raise money to redeem the whole or part of the rest only if the Deputy Commissioner is satisfied that the transfer is really advantageous to the vendor and his family, and that the vendor is not able to sell the land to a member of an agricultural tribe included in the same group as the vendor at a price which will enable him to attain his object;

(c)proposed or effected in favour of zamidars who, by reason of their insignificant numbers, have not been classed in the particular district as members of agricultural tribes;

(d)to bonafied artisans who are not professional money-lenders. It is desirable to encourage thrifty members of the artisan class to become owners of small plots of land when the alienation is not disadvantageous to the vendor and his family;

(e)by a member of an agricultural tribe in one Punjab district to a member of the same tribe or group of tribesi n another Punjab district. In such a case sanction should usually be given as a matter of course unless the allegation is clearly contrary to the intention of the Act. These instructions also apply in the case of persons holding land in districts of the other provinces adjoining Punjab districts who, if they had held land in the Punjab districts, would have been deemed to belong to agricultural tribes. To applications for sanction in favour of subjects of Indian states adjoining Punjab districts somewhat different considerations; apply and such applications should be deal with on their merits:

provided that in cases (a),(b).(c) (d) and (e) no member of an agricultural tribe included in the same group as the vendor has offered, or is ready to offer, a fair price for the land.

38. Mortgages by way of conditional sale abolished. The only restraint on mortgage which the Act makes generally applicable is contained in its 10th section, which abolishes the form of mortgage by way of conditional sale. This was a form whereby the mortgagor agreed that if he failed to redeem by a certain date the mortgage would be changed to sale. All that the money-lender had to do was to prevent repayment of the debt by any will or artifice and the rights of the owner became extinguished without recourse to court.

39. Scope of other restrictions. The other provisions regarding mortgages apply only to those made by members of agricultural tribes in favour of persons who are not members of the same tribe or of a tribe in the same group, or in other words , as matters at present stand in the same district (Section 6(1)). When hypothecating his land to such persons, a member of an agricultural tribe must choose between three kinds of mortgages. Two of these are usufructuary mortgages, the mortgagee acquiring for the time being the rights of landlord.

40. Usufructuary mortgage for limited period, usufruct extinguishing principal and interest. The first is a mortgage for a limited period not exceeding twenty years, all the rights of the mortgagor being suspend, and the rents and profits enjoyed by the mortgagee being taken as extinguishing by the end of the term his claim for both principal and interest (Section 6(1)(a). This form of mortgage was rare in the Punjab before the act was passed(In Ambala a mortgage of this description was known as “chakota rihn”).

41. Usufructurary mortgage for unlimited period with reservation of right of occupancy. In the second form of usufructurary mortgage the term is subject to no statuary limitation; the mortgagor reserves the rights of an occupancy tenant at such cash rent as may be agreed upon consisting of –

(a) the land revenue, plus,

(b)the rates and cesses, plus

(c)an additional sum of exceeding (a)

andthis rent is taken as equipment to interest. The mortgagor tenant can not alienate his right of cultivation, and he can only be ejected on some ground which would, under section 39 of the tenancy Act, Justify the ejection of an occupancy tenant(Section 6(1)(c)). Should he abandon the land or be ejected from it, the mortgage takes effect as one in the first form for such term no exceeding twenty years from the date on which his possessions came to an end, and for such a sum of money as the Deputy Commissioner may think reasonable(Section 6(2)). This form of mortgage is very rarely adopted.

42. Collateral mortgage. The third form of mortgage is a collateral one in which the mortgagor retains all rights of ownership and cultivation ,a subject however, to be the condition that if he fails to pay principal and interest in accordance with the terms of the contract, the mortgagee may apply the Deputy Commissioner to put him in possession of the land. The mortgage then becomes converted to a susfructary one of the first form for such reasonable. It is also his duty to determine what the principal of the debt in the case of the new mortgage shall be. This will consist of whatever amount he finds to be due on account of the balance of principal and interest outstanding on the old mortgage. In making up the account the Deputy commissioner, need not accept the rate of interest contracted for but may award whatever amount of simple interest the thinks reasonable (Section 6(1)(b).).

43. Conditions which may be interested in statutory mortgages - In these statutory mortgages conditions may be inserted limiting the right of a mortgagor or mortgagee in possession to cut, sell or mortgage trees. Or to do any act affecting the permanent value of the land(Section 8(b)). The time in the agricultural year at which a mortgagor who redeems his land may resume possession of it may also be fixed(Section 8(a)) . Any conditions not permitted by the Act which are inserted in these mortgages are null and void(Section 8(2)see also paragraph 47)).

44. Revision of terms of unauthorized mortgages. If a member of an agricultural tribe mortgages his land in any unpermitted form, the deputy Commissioner is authorized to revise the terms so as to bring the transaction into conformity with whichever of the statutory forms the mortgagee a appears equitably entitled to claim (Section 9(1)). In the case of mortgages by way of conditional sale executed by members of agricultural tribes before the commencement of the Act, the deputy Commissioner may call on the mortgagee to choose whether he will retain the existing mortgage with the sale condition struck out, or accept, in lieu of it, a mortgage in the first of third of the forms described above(Section 9(2)).

45. Procedure in suits to enforce unauthorized mortgages - If a suit is instituted in a civil court on a mortgage by way of conditional sale or in a form unauthorized by the Act executed by a member of an agricultural tribe, the court is bound to make a reference to the deputy Commissioner so that the court is bound to make a reference to the deputy commissioner so that he may exercise the powers referred to in the last two paragraphs.

46. Mortgagor’s right of redemption unrestricted - The execution of a mortgage in one of the statutory forms in no way interferes with the mortgagor’s right to redeem his land at any time on payment of the mortgage debt, or in the case of a mortgage in the first or third form, of such proportion of the mortgage debt as the Deputy Commissioner determines to be still due.

47. Question whether statutory mortgages will come into use - The local Government has power to permit any therefrom of mortgages to be used by members of agricultural tribes and to the conditions admissible in the forms permitted by the act. Thirty years experience has shown that only the first form of mortgage has proved acceptable. The second form is almost unknown. The conditional sale clause has now practically disappeared.

48. Leases - As it would be easy to evade the provisions regarding mortgages by making transfers for long periods in the form of lease the term of leases made by members of agricultural tribes in favor of persons who are not members of the same tribe or a tribe in the same group has been limited to twenty years.

49. Restriction on extensions of mortgages and leases. The object of the Act would also benefited if, during the currency of a mortgage or lease for a term limited by law to twenty years, the mortgagor or lessor were free to extend the period by executing a fresh transfer. If the alienation already effected is for twenty years, no further transfer by way either of mortgage or of lease is permitted; if it is for less, a further mortgage or lease is allowed for such a number of years as will Bering the whole period of transfer up to twenty years.

50. Restriction on hypothecation of crops. Another device for evading the Act had also to be guarded against. Three is little difference in effect between a mortgage of land and mortgage of its produce. Members of agricultural tribes are, therefore, forbidden to aliendage or charge the produce or any part of the produce of their land for a period exceeding a year without the sanction of the deputy commissioner. There is no interference with borrowing on the security of the next two harvests. The period of one year will as a rule, cover contracts made by landowners with the agents of largess firms engaged in the wheat and oil –seed export trade? Such dealings have been of great benefit to the zamidars in may parts of the country, and if engagements of the sort for a period exceeding one year come before a deputy commissioner, he need feel no hesitation about sanctioning them.

51. Sale in execution of decree. The sale of agricultural land in execution of a decree has always been subject to severe restrictions in the Punjab. At first the sanction of commissioners was sufficient. In 1859 that of the Judicial Commissioner was required when the property was ancestral, and not acquired. Afterwards the Financial commissioner became the authority to whom sale proposals had to be submitted. The direct result of these rules was that sales in execution were almost unknown; the indirect that loan without the security of a mortgage on the debtor’s land were discouraged. The same Act, which has put restrictions on mortgages, has forbidden the sale in execution of a decree of land belonging to a mamber of an agricultural tribe. The provisions of section 72 of the Civil Procedure Code (Act V of 1908) have therefore ceased to be of much practical importance so far as the Punjab is concerned. Orders issued by any court for the attachment, sale or delivery of land or interest in land or for the attachment or sale of produce. Must be executed by the collector or some revenue officer appointed by him. The rules on the subject will befouled in chapter 12-m and 12-n of the Rules and Orders of the High Court, volume I and Finical Commissioners Standing Order No. 64.

51-A Temporary alienation’s in execution of decrees. Sale of land belonging to a member of an agricultural tribe in execution of a decree is forbidden by section 16, but at one time a learned judge of the High Court held that the land of an insolvent agriculturist vested in the official receiver who could sell it to another member of an agricultural tribe in satisfaction of a decree passed by an insolvency court. Division Bench of the same court subsequently overruled this interpretation of the law.

It is, however, a settled question that a civil court can in execution of a decree, orders a temporary alienation of the land of a judgment –debtor who is not a temporary alienation of such land. (Vide Full Bench rulings in one Lahore 192). Following that ruling, a learned judge held that an order by a civil court, directing the temporary alienation of the land of a member of an agricultural tribe for more than twenty years, even if the lease be ordered in favor of a person who is not a member of an agricultural tribe, did not contravene the provisions of the Punjab Alienation of Land Act. Formerly it had been the settled practice of the civil courts not to order temporary alienation’s for more than twenty years in such cases. But as result of this ruling the practice was departed from. And in not a few cases civil courts ordered alienation’s for as long as fifty years. As such action was a violation of the original objects and scope of the Act, the Punjab Alienation of Land (Amendment) Act, 1 of 1931, was passed. The new Act, which sought to re-establish and preserve the status quo ante, has absolutely limited temporary alienation’s in all cases whatsoever, to a maximum period of twenty years and permits mortgages only in one of the forms mentioned in section 6 of the original Act.

52. Other exemptions in favor of agriculturists. By section 60(1),(b) and (c) of the Civil Procedure Code (V of 1908) the following kinds of property belonging to an agriculturist are exempted from attachments :

(a)implements of husbandry:

(b)Such cattle and seed grain as may, in the opinion of the court, be necessary to enable him to earn his livelihood as such;

(c)The materials of houses and other buildings owned and occupied by him.

When the agriculturist is person liable for the payment of land revenue the proviso to section 70 of the land Revenue Act, XVII of 1887, becomes applicable, and if an order to attach produce is issued, the court should ask the collector to decide what portion of it should be exempted as being necessary for seed grain, and for the subsistence until the harvest next following of the defaulter and his family.”

No revenue court or officer must, except for reasons of urgency to be recorded, issue any process of arrest against tenant or against a landowner who cultivates his own land during either of the two harvesting seasons.

53. Provisions of Tenancy Act regulating relations of landlords and tenants at will. The chapter on the Rights of Tenants” in the Settlement Manual treats mainly of the history of hereditary tenant right in the Punjab and of the existing law on the subject contained in Act XVI of 1887. The remainder of the present chapter deals mostly with the relations of landlords and tenants –at will.

54. Proportion of land cultivated by tenants –at-will. About 43 percent of the land in the province is tilled by the landowners themselves, 9 percent by occupancy tenants at will, a few of whom pay no rent, if the five south western districts of Jhang, Montgomery, Multan Muzaffargarh and Dera Ghazi Khan are excluded, 44 percent are cultivated by tenants – at will, 47 percent by the landowners and 9 percent by occupancy tenants. The tenants –at –will are for the most part also landowners in the same village who owns too little land of their own to provide a decent livelihood.

55. Lien of Landlord on produce. The rent of a tenant’s holding is a first charge on its crops. If any other creditor gets the produce attached in execution of a decree against the tenant, the landlord can insist on the its sale and on being paid from the proceeds whatever he proves to be due on account of the rent of the current harvest and of any unpaid rent which fell due within the year immediately preceding the date of his application to the revenue of fiber on the subject. The finding of the revenue officer as to the amount to which the landlord is entitled has theforce of a decree.

56 . Rights and duties of landlords and tenants as regards produce. Except in the case just mentioned t, the landlord must not intermeddle with the tending, cutting or harvesting of his tenants crops. But of course where the rent cossets or a portion of the produce he has a right to take part in the division, and to remove his own share. The tenant on his part is bound, where thereunto is taken by division battle or appraisement (kankut) not to remove any portion of the produce at such a time or in such a manner as to prevent the due division or appraisement thereof” and to abstain from dealing with it in a manner contrary to established usage. If he wrongs his landlord in either of these ways, and a rent suit is the result “ the produce may be deemed to have been as full as the fullest crop of the same description on similar land in the neighborhood for that harvest.”

57. Division by referee appointed by Tahsildar. Delay in dividing a garnered crop may result in very serious loss from the sprouting or rotting of therein. The landlord or tenant who is injured by the failure of the other party to attend may apply to the tehsildar for the appointment of a referee to divide or appraise the produce. The referee may carry out the division or appraisement in the absence of one. Of the parties, if after due notice he fails to appear. The result of the referee’s proceedings must be reported to the tehsildar for confirmation. The same procedure may be adopted when there is an dispute between the landlord and the tenant about the division or appraisement.

 

58. Payment of rent though tahsil. When two or more persons are landlords in respect of a single tenancy the tenant is not bound to pay part of his rent to one and part to another. It is their business to appoint one of their numbers to receive the whole rent. Where rent is payable in cash, the landlord may, for some reason refuse, to receive it, or to grant a receipt. Their may for example, be a dispute about the amount and he may refuse to sign an acquttance unless the tenant will give him all the claims. Again a tenant may occasionally be in doubt that the person is who is entitled to be paid the rent. In either case it is open to him to apply to the tahsildar to accept the rent as a deposit, and pay it to the person whom he considers entitled to receive it.

59. Notice of relinquishment. Tenants at –will usually hold by the year only, leases for a term of years being still uncommon. Arrangements are as a rule, made for the agricultural year (Kharif –rabi) the outgoing tenant giving up the land after the spring crops have been harvested. The law provides that neither party to a contract of letting shall be able to put the other in difficulty by failing to give timely notice of his intentions as regards the next agricultural year, which means in the tenancy act, the twelve months beginning on the 16th of June. A tenant who proposes to quit his holding after the Rabi harvest must inform his landlord on or before 15 January. If he fails to do so he becomes liable for the rent of the next agricultural year unless the landlord arranges for the cultivation of the land by someone else. Except with the consent of the landlord a notice of relinquishment must apply to the whole of the lease land. If the tenant thinks it desirable for his own security. He can give notice to the landlord through the tahsil.

60. Notice of ejectment of yearly tenants. A landlord who wishes to eject a tenant at will can apply to a naib tahsildar or tahsidar for the issue of a notice. The application must be made in time for service to be effected on or before the 15th of November. Subject to that qualification, the application can be lodged at anyy time after the beginning of the agricultural year. The above date is a very suitable one as it falls before the chart crop has been completely cleared off the ground and before the winter rains. The tenant therefore gets notice before ploughing for the harvests of the next agricultural year begins.

 

61. Contents of notice. The notice requires the tenant to give up the landbefore the 1st of May and informs him that if for any reason he disputes his liability to ejectment, he must bring a revenue suit for that purpose within two months from the date of service. It also warns him that, in the event of his having any claim to receive compensation for improvements or disturbance before ejectment. He must, within two months, present an application to an Assistant Collector of the first grade. The circumstances under which such a claim arises will be discussed later. It is enough to say here that if it is established ejectment must be styed until it is satisfied.

62. Ejectment order. The tenant may obey the notice and relinquish the land before the 1 May. If without instituting a suit to contest liability to ejectment or lodging an application for payment of compensation. He simply remains in possession, the tahsildar, on being satisfied that the notice has been served passes an ejectment order. If compensation is claimed the order must be issued by an Assistant Collector of the first grade. An ejectment order is enforced in the same way as a decree of a civil court for the possession of land. It can only be executed between the 1 May and 15 June. Falling execution at the proper time the tenant is entitled to keep the land for the next agricultural year. Applications for compensation on account of improvements or disturbance should bedealt with promptly. It is unfair that a landlord should be kept out of his rights by the dilatoriness of a revenue officer.

63. Protection of standing crops. If, when the order is executed. It is found that the tenant has crops standing on any part of the land he must not be ejected from that part till they ripen and he has had a reasonable time for harvesting them. On the landlord’s application, the revenue officer who ordered the ejectment may fix a fair rent to be paid by the tenant for his extended use of the and or the may value the crop and allow the landlord to take possession on paying the amount into his office. Where the tenant has prepared land for sowing but has not sown it he may ask the revenue officer to determine what amount is due to him from the landlord on that account. His right to receive anything is contingent on his having acted conformably with local usage in the method of tillage adopted.

64. Ejectment of tenants for a fixed term and occupancy tenants. So far we have been dealing with the method by which a landlord can get rid of a yearly tenant. The law as regards the ejectment of occupancy tenants is briefly described in paragraph 213 of the Settlement Manual but it will be convenient to state it more fully here in connection with that which governs the case of tenants for a fixed term exceeding one year under a lease or a decree or order of a competent authority. A tenant of the latter calls may throw up his holding at the end of the term without giving any notice to his landlord. Till then he is like an occupancy tenant protected from ejectment by any summary process. A landlord seeking to outset him must bring a regular suit against him.

65. Order for ejectment of occupancy tenant failing to satisfy decree for rent. There is one case in which summary process can be used against an occupancy tenant but not apparently against a tenant for a fixed term exceeding one year. An Assistant Collector of the 1st grade can order the ejectment of an occupancy tenant when a decree for an arrears of rent has been passed and remains unsatisfied. But he must first give the tenant an opportunity or satisfying the landlord’s claim by warning him that ejectment will be ordered unless within 15 days he pays the amount due into the Assistant Collector’s Office. These provisions , if worked mechanically may cause hardship where there is much difference between the amount of the arrears and the value of the tenant right. It must be borne in mind that the tenant is often a very ignorant person. A considerate revenue officer will in such a case summon him to receive the written notice in his presence and explain to him the result which will follow on failure to pay within the appointed time. There is no legal objection to granting a short extension of time for payment for the issue of ejectment order may be deferred if good cause is shown for so doing. The assistant Collector should also ascertain whether the tenant has any claim to compensation for improvements or for disturbances. If he has it must be gone into before any further action is taken. Where an ejectment order is passed it can as rule as in the case of a tenant at will only executed between the 1st May and 15th June. But where this limitation would be unfair to the landlord, as it might be for example where the tenant had delayed matters by a basses claim for compensation execution can be allowed at any time.

66. Remedy of tenant dispossessed before receipt of compensation due. If by any accident or mistake a tenant entitled to compensation for improvements or disturbance or for the value of unharvested crops or the preparation of land for sowing is ejected before the amount due has been determined he will not be reinstated but he can within one year from the date of his dispossession, apply to the court which decreed or to the revenue officer who ordered his ejectment to fix the sum due and require the landlord to pay it. An order passed on such application has the same effect as a decree for money.

67. Grounds of action for ejectment and reinstatement. The grounds on which an action for ejectment may be brought and the circumstances under which a tenant who considers that the has been wrongfully dispossessed may sue for reinstatement or for compensation will be dealt with in the chapter on Revenue courts.

68. Nullity of entries in records of rights or agreements increasing landlord’s power of ejectment. Any clause in a record of rights whenever made or in an agreement made after the passing of Act XVI of 1887 empowering a landlord to eject a tenant otherwise than in accordance with that enactment is void.

69. Leases current when new assessment is introduced. Provision is made in section 34 of the Act for the avoiding of leases whose term is still running when the revenue is altered at a general reassessment, failing a revision of terms made with the assistance of a revenue court and accepted by the tenant, when the assessment has been raised and by the landlord when it has been reduced. Leases for the term of settlement continue in force until a revised assessment actually takes effect unless a contrary intention clearly appears in the agreement.

70. Improvements - The question of “Improvements in tenants holdings may occasionally cause some little difficulty for no very broad line of distinction can be drawn between the simplest kinds of improvements and some of the operations carried out by tenants in the ordinary course of tillage. An exhaustive explanation of the terms as applied to a work executed on an agricultural tenancy is given in section 4(19) of the tenancy Act. The important point is that the work must be one by which the value of the tenancy has been and continues to be increased. The term does not embrace every operations which increases for a time the value of he holding. But only such are outside the everyday course of husbandry and possess a greater or less degree of permanency. The sinking of a masonry well to irrigate a field hitherto dependent on the rainfall is obviously an “Improvement” So is the making of a kacha well in stiffest soil for this involves a good deal of labour and the well will last for several years. But the digging ofa shallow kacha well of the ordinary type which waters a few bighas of crops in the rabi and falls in the rainy season. Is not improvement.”

71. Improvments by landlords. In a country of peasant proprietors like the Punjab the bulk of agricultural improvements is made by the landowners on lands over which they have full control. The question of improvements in tenants holding is only of practical importance as regards those which are affected by occupancy tenants and the particular class of improvements known as Jangal tarashi or clearance of waste carried out by tenants at will. It is true that by Act XVI of 1887 landlords have the right to make improvements in the lands of occupancy tenants with the previous permission of the Deputy Commissioner and that provision is made in the Act for enhancing the rent of the improved holdings. But as a matter of fact landlords are very chary of speeding money on lands with which their con mainly confined to receiving a rent fixed by authority. Should an application for permission to do so be presented the tenant ought to be board. The point is realty of little importance as disputes are very rare.

The Act permits the local Government to issue rules on the subject of landlords improvements but none have been framed so far.

72. Improvements by tenant at will - A tenant at will can only make an improvement with the assent of his landlord but consent may be assumed from circumstances. The courts have now given a number of ruling which are of value as guides. It must be remembered that the question of improvements by tenants is only of importance when compensation is demanded by the tenant.

73. Compensation for disturbance. In any case every tenant “who has cleared and brought under cultivation waste land in which he has not a right of occupancy is entitled to compensation great or small . If he is ejected before he has got a full return for his expenditure compensation for disturbance must in no case exceed five years rent of the land and would in manycases probably be far less. If a substantial and lasting improvements has been made the recant will receive compensation for it in addition to compensation for disturbance. A village proprietor tilling part of the common land of the estate or one of several co-sharers cultivating the joint holding cannot claim compensation for disturbance on ejectment. Where rent is paid in grain or by a money rate on crop (Zabti) or by a cash rent consisting only of the land revenue and cesses the rent for the purposeof calculating compensation may be taken as four time the land revenue. The same rule applies where no rent at all has been paid. As the land was ex-hypothesis waste when the tenant got it it will in many cases not be assessed to land revenue. In such a case the above provision must be interpreted asmeaning that the rent may be assumed to be equalto four times the land revenue reduced by applying to the holding the rate at which similar cultivated lands in the same estate are assessed .

74. Improvements by occupancy tenants. The little of occupancy tenants to make improvements on their own holding is asserted in the 63rd section of the Act. But, when the Punjab was first annexed and for many years afterwards their right to do so was held to be subject to freight restrictions. The points is really of little practical importance now as the law is generally well understood.

75. Provisions of the Tenancy Act as to tenants improvements. The first Punjab Tenancy Act. XXVIII of 1868 put the law to tenants improvements substantially on its present footing except that the provisions ofthat enactment on the subject could be overridden by written agreements or properly attested entries in the records of a regular settlement. This has now been altered. An entry in a record of fights whenever framed or condition in an agreements made after the passing of Act XVI 1887 which purports to limit the rights of tenants to make improvements or to receive on ejectments compensation for improvements already made or for disturbance. Is null and void. A tenant is however free covenant to pay an enhanced rent on account of an improvement made or to be made by his landlord. A written agreement made before the 1st November, 1887, restraining a tenant at will from making improvements is a bar to any claim for compensation. But with this exception improvements made before the Act came into force are deemed to have been made in accordance with the Act.

76. Ejectment and enhancement of rent barred till tenant has received compensation - A tenant who starts an improvement after his landlord has used for his ejectment, or caused a notice of ejectment to be served upon him, does so at his own risk and has no claim for compensation if he is turned out of holding. But subject to that reasonable exception a tenant who has improved his holding is protected both from ejectment and from enhancement of rent till he has received compensation from his landlord.

77. Calculation of compensation. In estimating compensation the points for consideration are---

The amount by which the value or the produce or the tenancy or the value of that produce is increased by the improvement.

The conditions of the improvement and the probable duration of its effects;

The labour and capital required for the making of such an improvement;

Any reduction or remission of rent or other advantage allowed to the tenant by the landlord in consideration of the improvements; and

In the case of a reclamation or the conversion of urinated into irrigated land the length of time during which the tenant has had the benefit of the improvement.

78. Compensation by grant of lease or reduction of rate of battle. Compensation must be assessed and paid in money unless the parties agree that it should be made in whole or in part by the grant of a beneficial lease of land or in some other way. It is always open to a landlord and a tenant to settle any claim for compensation by the offer and acceptance of a twenty years lease at the existing rent or at any other rent that may mutually agreed upon. Where a well has been sunk a reduction of the landlord’s batal share in consideration of the extra expenditure incurred and required is a very suitable from of compensation. When crops are divided, it is quite common to find the customary rate for well crops lower than for rain crops.

CHAPTER III

ASSIGNMENTS OF LAND REVENUE

79. Importance of Land revenue assignments in the Punjab. Grants of land revenue by the State to private individuals are often compendiously described as “jogirs” and muafis”. No broad distinction can be drawn between these two terms “Jagir” is usually appropriated to the larger grants and especially to those given for services of a military or official character and “uafi” to assignments of less value and importance. The subject is one of much interest in the Punjab where such alienation’s form a larger proportion of the total land revenue than in any other province in India. How this has come to pass will appear in the sequel . It is the more curious because the views which prevailed among the men who had the greatest influence on the early administration of the Punjab were not favorable to the maintenance of a privileged class and a rapid reduction of the amount of revenue diverted from public purposes was looked for. Eleven years after annexation the Financial Commissioner estimated the assigned land and revenue at 33 lakhs. Forty years later its gross amount was still much the same; but owing to the great expansion of the land revenue of the Punjab the proportion in 1928 was only 1/13th.

80. Assignments under Native Government - The Government which preceded our own found it convenient to secure the swords of brave and the prayers of pious men to pacify deposed chiefs and to reward powerful servants, by assigning to them the ruler’s share (hakimi hissa) of the produce of the land in particular villages or tracts. This was an easier mode of payment for the State than the regular disbursement of salaries or cash pensions and it was much more gratifying to the recipients. The amount which a jagirdar could take as the ruler’s share was only limited by his own judgment of the capacity of the cultivators to withstand oppression by force or to escape from it by detrain, and he enjoyed in practice most of the rights which we now regard as special evidences of ownership. Large assignees of land revenue also exercised within their own estates the power over life and limb, which is sometimes regarded as the peculiar mark of sovereignty. The system referred to above was too deep rooted for the new administration to destroy . Prudence dictated its continuance, but demanded the limitation of the drain on the resources of the State which it involved, and the removal of the encroachments which the jagirdars had made on the prerogatives of Government on the one hand and on what we conceived to be the rights of landholders on the other.

81. Subject must be tested separately for different tracts - In treating of the subject it will be convenient to deal separately with.

the territories included in the Punjab state as Maharaja Ranjit Singh bequeathed it to his successors. Here a distinction must be drawn between the jagir tenures of (1) Kangra and the tract between the Beasx and Sutlej compressing the present districts of Jullundur and Hoshiarpur and (2) the districts lying to the west of Beas and Sutlej annexed later;

The Cis-Sutlej territory the plains portion of which was taken under our protection in 1809 and the hill tract in 1815. This includes the present districts of Simla ,Ambala , Ludhiana, Ferozepore (except the Fazilka tahsil) and tahsil Kaithal and pargana Indiri in karnal;

 

The Delhi and Bhatti territories conquered in 1803 and transferred from the North – Western Provinces to the Punjab in 1858. These comprise the districts of Hisar, Rohtak , Gurgaon , Delhi, tahsil Panipat and paragana Karnal in Karnal and tahsil Fzilka in Ferozpore.

 

 

82. Assignments under the Sikh Government. In the first Punjab administration Report it was estimated that under Maharaja Ranjit Singh more than 1/3rd of the revenues of the State was assigned to private individuals. This curious state of things was not due to any sentiment of generosity on the part of that astute ruler. It was the natural result of the process by which his power had been built up and of the convenience under a rude system of administration of making the servants of the State collect their wages direct from its subjects. Ranjit Singh was originally only the head of one of the misls or confederacies into which the followers of Guru Gobind Singh were divided. Although the made himself the master of the whole Sikh common wealth in the Punjab he felt that it was impolitic and perhaps impossible to deprive the powerful Sardars whom he converted from his equals into his vassals of the revenues they had enjoyed and the powers they had exercised within their own estates. He contented himself therefore with making their tenure conditional on furnishing contingents of horsemen to reinforce in time of war that powerful army of trained foot solders which was the real foundation of his power. The same motives led him to leave to the Rajput Rajas of the hills and the powerful Muhamadan Chief of the western Punjab whom he brought under subjection some fragments of their ancient possessions in the shape of jagirs. A part even of the regular troops was paid by assignments of land revenue and he found it convenient to remunerate in the same way the great officers of the State and to make similar grants for the support of the ladies and the servants of his household. As an Indian ruler it behaved him also to be liberal in grants to holy men and religious in situations. It was worth while to conciliate the leading men in many estates the maliks or mukaddims or chaudhris as they were called by giving them a part of their own lands revenue free or even a considerable share of the village collections. These petty grants were known as inams and where they consisted of a definite share of the revenue of an estate as chaharams.

 

83. Insecurity of tenure of assignments under Sikh Government - There was of course no security of tenure. Each grant was held at the leisure of Maharaja which usually meant for so long as the recipient was worth conciliating. More especially every assignment was in practice open to reconsideration on the death of the holder and when renewed a fine or nazrana was often exacted which sometimes equaled the collections of several years.

84. Position of assignees under Sikh Government - Assignees were entitle to the States’ share of the Produce and took it, as the State usually did in kind that is by actual division of crop or by appraisement. Where the grants consisted of whole villages the grantee exercised the right of extending cultivation by bringing in tenants to break up the waste. He sunk wells and planted gardens and if he was strong enough turned out existing cultivators who fell under his displeasure. The larger jagirdars also held the powers comprehensively described as faujdari that is to say they carried out so far as their power of their disposition led them the rude system for the exaction of fines or the lopping off of limbs as a penalty for crime or the enforcement of arbitration in civil cases which then constituted criminal and civil justice. They in their turn made grants within their own estates to the men who fought for them in the field or prayed for them at home.

85. Assignments in districts annexed in 1846. The territory ceded by the Lahore Darbar in 1946 was known in official literature as the “Trans Sutlej States”. In the hill tracts the jagirs were held by the Rajput Rajas who had been deposed by Ranjit Singh and who were not restored to independence when we took their country. The Rajas of Mandi and Suket were never reduced to the status of Jagirdars by the Sikhs though the former suffered much at their hands and their territories continued to be separate chiefdoms under the suzerainty of the British Government. In the plains the Kapurthala Chief occupied a similar position for Ranjit Singh’s ally. Sardar Fateh Singh Ahluwalia had managed with difficulty to maintain his rights But the other Sikh Sardars between the Beas and the Sutlej had been reduced to subjection like their brethren to the west of the Beas and held their estates on condition of furnishing horsemen in time of war. Other Jagirdars of the Cis-Sutlej States had received their Jagirs as rewards for services rendered to the Lahore Darbar.

 

86. Orders issued by Lord Hardinge - Lord Hardige’s orders regarding the treatment of revenue free tenures in the Trans-Sutlej States may be reproduced as they were adopted with some modifications in the instructions given by Lord Dalhousie to the Board of Administration after the annexation of the rest of the Punjab. He prefaced the rules which he laid down by remarking “there is certainly no reason why we should maintain in perpetuity an alienation of the Government revenues which would not have been maintained by the power we have succeeded . * * * All grants were resumed by the Sikh rules at will without reference to the terms of the grants whenever State exigencies or even caprice dictated. On the death of the granter they lapped as a matter of course, and were only renewed on payment of large nazrana equal in some instances to may year collections ****** The decision of the British Government on these claims will give a permanency validity and value to the tenures hitherto unknown not withstanding sanads from Native Governments of perpetual release from all demands which the holders know mean nothing.” The rules, seven in number were as follows :-

1st –All grants for the provision or maintenance of former rulers deposed or former proprietors dispossessed to be maintained on their present tenures in perpetuity.

“2nd – All endowments , bonafide made for the maintenance of religious establishments or buildings or buildings for public accommodation to be maintained as long as the establishments or buildings are kept up.

“3rd – All persons holding villages or portions of villages free of rent or money payment and for which no service was to be reddened by grants made by Maharajas Ranjit Singh Kharak Singh or Sher Singh to be maintained in their holding free of rent during their lives each case to be open to the consideration and orders of Government on the death of holder to be decided according to its merits.

“4th – All persons holding land or grants as above, subject to a payment of nazrana, peshkash or the like to hold for their lives subject to the payment of quarter jama and on the death of the holders the land to be resumed or assessed at full jama.

“5th – All persons holding land for which service of any kind was to be rendered to the Sikh rules including Bedis and Sodhis who were expected to perform religious services for the benefit of the donors to hold for life subject to a payment of ¼ jama the case of each such tenure to be reported for the consideration of Government on the death of the holder.

“6th – Grants made by persons not having authority to alienate the Government revenues to be resumed.

“7th- Where no sanad exists a holding for three generations to constitute a title and entitle the holders to have his case adjudicated by the foregoing rules.”

 

87. Treatment of Jagirs in tract between Beas and Sutlej. Jagirs in the Trans-Sutlej States which the ancestors of existing holders had won by their swords before Maharaja Ranjit Singh Established his ascendancy were known as “Conquest Jagirs”. In the case of the assignments held by the Sikh Sardars in the plains the policy at first followed appears to have been to resume a portion considered equivalent to the military service which was no longer required and to maintain the remainder for life. A large number of these life tenures were afterwards reconsidered in pursuance of orders passed in 1856 and were ultimately released in perpetuity. The question then arouse whether succession should be confined to the heirs of the persons in whose favour the perpetuity grant was made or of the person in possession when the first enquiry after annexation took place. The latter alternative was adopted and it was decided to apply to the Trans-Sutlej Conquest Jagirs the following five rules which were modeled on those laid down some years previously in the case of Cis-Sutlej jagirs :-

“I – That no window shall succeed to a jagir share.

“II – That no descendants in the female line shall inherit.

“III- That on failure of a direct male heir a collateral male heir may succeed, if the common ancestor of the deceased and of the collateral claimant was in possession of the share at or since the year of primary investigation of the jagir tenure which in theTrans –Sutlej States in ordinarily 1846.

“IV – That allegation by the Jagirdar of portion of his holding whether to his relations or strangers shall neither be officially recognized nor officially recorded.

“V – That one or more sons of a common ancestor in possession at the period of the first investigation being entitled to the whole share possessed by such common ancestor shall be held and be declared responsible for the maintenance of windows left by deceased brothers who had they lived would have shared with such son or sons.

The Jagirs of the hill Rajas of Kangra were upheld in perpetuity .

Assignments in territory west of the Beas.

88. Treatment of assignments in territory west of Beas - When the annexation of the Punjab was proclaimed on the 30th March, 1849 the members of the newly constituted Board of Administration were instructed by Lord Dalhousie that “the very first object to which they should direct their attention was the determination of all questions affecting the validity of grants to hold land rent free.” It was obvious that annexation must be followed by a great reduction in land revenue assignments . The British Government had no need of the military contingents of the Sardars and it paid its servants by drafts upon the treasury. But it was also a fixed part of Lord Dalhousie’s policy to lower the position of great Sardars and to trust to the contentment of the common people and to the presence of a sufficient military force to secure the peaceful development of the new province. Of the two great brothers who were the leading members of the Board of Administration sir Henry Lawrence accepted with reluctance a policy which differed widely from his own views while Sir John Lawrence welcomed it because he was himself convinced of its soundness. This is not the place to discuss the merit’s of the course which was actually followed. It is enough to note that the settlement made was not in fact an illiberal one. It is also the case that men’s faith in this , as in some other parts of Lord Dalhousie’s policy was a good deal shaken by the events of 1857 and that in many cases the original conditions of the Jagirs grants to leading families in the Punjab have been revised as opportunity offered in generous spirit.

 

89. Lord Dalhousie’s Views. Lord Dalhousie laid down emphatically that by our occupation of the country after the whole Sikh nation had been in arms against us . We have acquired the absolute right of conquerors and would be justified in declaring ever acre of land liable to Government assessment.” He ordered the resumption without exception of grants held by men who had taken up arms against the British Government, whether by choice or compulsion . He repeated Lord Hardinge’s description of the insecurity of the tenure of jagirs under the Sikh Government and of the increased value which the decision of the British Government would give to any assignment that was maintained. Every assignee whose tenure was upheld was to give up all deeds of grant which he held from former Governments and to receive instead a sanad from the Board declaring that the assignment was the free gift of the British Government. Except in a few special cases the Jagirdars were to be deprived of all policy powers and every assigned estate was to be assessed “so that the jagridars or other holder should not be allowed to rack rent his tenants or derive more from the land than would be taken by the Government whose place he occupies.” Where grants held on condition of service were maintained a cash commutation for the aid which was no longer required was to be fixed.

90. Rules issued by Lord Dalhousie - Loard Dalhousie reproduced Lord Hardinge’s seven rules with some modifications and added one of his own . In the first flue for the words “on their present tenures in perpetuity” the words “ on their present terms subject to future diminution after the death of incumbents” were substituted . This alternation was not without significance. To the second rule a rider was added providing for the reduction of endowments which appeared to be exorbitant and it was remarked that when grants of great value have been conferred for the maintenance of the State religion…. They should be restricted to a smaller amount from obvious motives of political expediency.” An addition was made to rule 3 to the effect that long occupancy would of course receive the consideration of Government. The alterations in the other rules were only verbal. The additional rule was as follows :-

“8. Where chiefs or other hold lands rent free which were not granted by Maharaja Ranjit Singh or any other ruler but won by their own swords they will deserve consideration and their cases should be specially reported to Government with the Board’s Recommendation in each case. Any particular cases not provided for in the foregoing rules to be reported separately to government for special orders.

Land Dalhousie added :-

“Should cases of individual hardshiparise from a strict observance of these rules whether from indigence infirmity age or sex the Governor –Generalon such being represented will be happy to relax the severity of the rules or confer a pension upon the object.”

 

91. Instructions of Board of Administration - In circulating these instructions the Board of Administration remarked :-

(a) with reference to (Rule 2) that religious endowments should be upheld in perpetuity subject to the good behavior of the grantees and conditional on the income being devoted to the objects originally proposed by the grantor :

(b) that the third rule should usually be held to apply to grants made by thethree Maharajas mentioned before their accession or by other Chiefs before their time :

(c) with reference to the 6th and 7th rules that assignments unsupported by sanads or held under invalid sanads granted by kardars nazims and the like should nevertheless be maintained for the lives of the present occupants where possession was of long standing and that unbroken occupation of 20,25 or 30 years whether by one individual or for two or more generations should entitle the holder to a life interest :

 

(d) that grants of recent date should when the occupants were old or infirm or for any other reason objects of charity be maintained for life :

(e) that there a jagir had been confiscated because the Jagirdar had borne arms against the British Government all grants made by him to his dependents should at once be resumed . But in cases of small assignments of long standing special recommendations to maintain for life might be made if the holder appeared to be entitled to this indulgence :

(f) that grants of land free of assessment enjoyed by the headmen of Villages if supported by sanads were to be upheld. If they had been enjoyed for many years and the amount was not excessive they were to be maintained for life or at any rate; until the revised settlement even though no sanad could be produced;

(g) that lands held revenue free by village servants if the amount was moderate were to be upheld until the revised settlement;

(h) that the tenures under which gardens were held were to be liberally dealt with and if supported by valid sandals or possessed by several generations were to be recommended for maintenance in perpetuity . If resumption was resolved on settlement was to be made with the ex mafidar at the ordinary village rates and not at garden rates . Where the grant was new and the garden existed before it was made. It was to be resumed and the land assessed to the best advantage.

92. Chaudhris inams. Shortly after the Board directed that inams or money allowances enjoyed by leading members of village communities before annexatin should be upheld for life subject to good behavior. On the death of the inamdar the inam was to be continued to his son or resumed as might seem expedient. The inam was to be considered as remuneration for service to Government and to the village community and the possession of it entitled the holder to be called chaudhri.

93. Grants to takiyas -Lord Dalhousie’s second rule put religious establishments and buildings for public accommodation on the same footing and directed the maintenance of their endowments for as along as the establishment or buildings were kept up. In 1853 the question was raised whether these orders applied to Hindu dharamsalas or to the small roadside takiyas occupied my Muhammadan fakirs. Sir John Lawrence ruled that except in special cases grants in support of such buildings should not be released in perpetuity . The reasons he gave are characteristic and are worth quoting –

“5th- The Chief Commissioner cannot admit that he existence of such grants does not encourage mendicancy but further considers that the existence of these takiyas has often a mischievous effect. Doubtless men who’re now fakirs will for the most part remain such; their idle habits will prevent their taking to any honest or respectable mode of livelihood. But there will no longer exist the same inducement for the young and active to Join such people and the number of their disciples will at once fall off. The abolition of monasteries in Protestant countries caused that class of men to disappear in a few years and so will a similar system operate on the commentates of fakirs. In the North – Western Provinces where such endowments are rare, the number of this class bear no proportion to those existing in the Punjab where they have been fostered and cherished.

“6th – The people are very zealous, no doubt for the support of such endowments because they cost them nothing but if their zeal is genuine and sincere they will support the takiyas themselves Government have sacrificed much revenue in reducing the land tax, in abolishing customs and giving up vexatious cesses of various kinds which the people are well aware of . We can there fore afford that they should murmur a little at the loss of their takiyas.

“7th – The Chief Commissioner himself has never looked on these places with fervor. He has had personal experience of their gross abuse. As a magistrate and criminal judge, he has often known them to be the resort of thieves , robbers and murders. The whole class of fakirs he believes to be bane to the country.

“8th- The Chief Commissioner, moreover does not understand how a takiya of the character of that in Chamyari could afford to feed travelers; eight rupees per annum would not go far in this way. He believes that the hospitably of the occupant fakir is almost always lives that the hospitably of the occupant fakir is almost always limited to the feeding of his own class and that he does not do more for other travelers than give them a little water or perhaps in special cases a few whiffs of his hukah. Such being the Chief Commissioner’s deliberate opining he cannot advocate the release of the land in Chamyari nor agree to reconsider similar cases of the kind in the Jalandhar Doab.”

94. The Jagir Enquiry. The enquiry regarding all service grants all Jagirs consisting of one or more estates was carried out by a special officer Captain Becher. The final order in these cases were passed by the Governor General. This which politically speaking was the important part of the in concerning the smaller grants should be conducted by District and Settle meant Officers and the work was mainly done by the latter . It proved a lengthy business but was nearly complete except as regards the frontier districts in 1860.

95. Mafis in Jagir estates. It was found that in jagir estates there were piots of land for which revenue was paid neither to the jagirdar not to Government. The Chief Commissioner ruled in 1854 that all such tenures should be investigated and orders passed for release or resumption. When any such grant lapses the benefit accrues to the jagirdar and not to Government. There are some exceptions top this rule, which will be noticed later.

96. Classification of Sikh grants. In the first Punjab Administration Report which was issued in August 1852 the revenue free assignments and cash pensions which had been enjoyed under the Sikh Government were classified as follows:-

Section 1- Service grants

1. Military

2. Civil

3. Feudal

4. Household

Section II – Personal grants

5. State pensioners

6. Royal Ladies.

7. Family Provision

8. Allowance to influential landholders

Do III – Religious grants

9. Endowments

10. Charitable

11. “Holy men.”

97. Treatment of different classes of grants. The board described the manner in which they had dealt with the different classes of cases.

“For those grants which in cashof in land are allowed in consideration of long service the following rules have been adopted :-

From twenty –five to thirty years service. Entitles the party to one fourth of his emolument: thirty to thirty-five years, to one-third :thirty five years to forty and upwards, to one-half: but the first named period, viz. Twenty –five to thirty years, has generally been diminished to fifteen years. In favour of jagirdars

“In the classified schedule of grants, with regard to classes 1 and 2 namely , grant for military and civil service, it will be remembered that previous to annexation these grants were chiefly in lieu of salaries: when the late Darbar tropes were disbanded by the British Government some few of the recipients were taken into British employ and the remainder were pensioned off on one-fourth, one third or one half the grant as the case might be. If the grant was found to be superannuating allowance it was maintained in full. The same principle obtained with the household grants held by the attendants of the sovereign. The feudal grants (class No. 3), were held by the great barons and the dignitaries of the State. These grants are partly feudal and partly personal. That portion of the grant which was conditional on the furnishing of a contingent would be resumed and the horsemen would be generally discharged and pensioned under the rule already given. But a portion of the grant was generally on allowance personal to the feudal chief and this portion would be maintained to him for life and a portion to his legitimate male issue in perpetuity either in virtue of prescriptive possession or of the grantor’s authority or on special considerations of family influence and antiquity or of individual character and services. With regard to State pensions (Class 5). The grants were maintained for life of incumbents subject to diminution after death. In case of royal ladies, mostly windows of Maharajas Ranjit Singh Kharak Singh and Sher Singh, the landed grants were not maintained , but a money commutation for their lives was effected . The family (class No. 7) are allowances to the heirs or relatives of deceased chiefs. Soldiers or servants of the State granted by our predecessors and confirmed by ourselves. The y are subject to resumption or reduction after demise of recipients. Among the grants which come under the general denomination of personal may be noticed “the inams” (class No. 8) . This term was under the Sikh rule applied to certain deductions made from the revenue of an estate in favour of some village chief called a chaudhri who by local knowledge aided the revenue officers in ascertaining the resources of the village and in collecting the taxes and also in the preservation of order and harmony. The agency thus secured and the influence thus enlisted on the side of the local authorities were important. The grants have been generally maintained during the life-time of the grantee upon the condition of general service. In the conducting of the new system of settlement which chiefly works through popular agency the chaudhris have made themselves most useful and their services may for the future be turned to good account in the detection and prevention of crime in the management of disorganized estates in the arrangements for the public convenience such as the furnishing of supplies and carriage repair of roads and the construction of useful works.

“The endowments mentioned in class No. 9 are both secular and religious for the support of tempies mosques places of pilgrimage and devotion schools village inns for the reception of travelers paupers and strangers generally of a monastic character. These institutions are ornaments to the villages: they have some architectural pretension and being embossed in trees are often the only shady spots in the neighborhood. They add much to the comfort of rustic life and keep alive a spirit of hospitality and piety among the agricultural people. The endowments though occasionally reduced in amount have on the whole been regarded with liberality and in confirming them the officers have mainly regarded the utility and efficiency of the institution. Such grants when insignificant in amount have been maintained even though the original grantor might have been the headman of the village.

The grants to objects of charity or to persons of sanctity have frequently been paid in cash and in such cases have been brought under the denomination of pension. In regard to the charitable grants indeed with regard to all grants the tenor of paragraph 56 of the Government letter has been observed and the rigous of the rules has been relaxed in favour of parties who from indigence informally age or sex might be fitting objects of special indulgence.

 

98. Social effects of policy adopted. It is interesting to observe the view taken by Sir John Lawrence a year and a halter of the social effects of the policy described above.

“The settlement of the country is by the present date assuming its solid and permanent proportions; the transition is well high complete and the country is becoming the Punjab of the British power. The feudal nobility of Ranjit Singh the pillars of his State are tending towards inevitable decay. Their gaudy retinues have disappeared their city residences are less gay with equip-ages and visitors: their country seats and villas are comparatively neglected. But the British Government has done all its consistently could to mitigate their reverses and render their decadence gradual . They receive handsome pensions or they retain for their lives a moiety of their landed grants when any of them have been judged to possess hereditary claims a fair share of their landed fields has been guaranteed to them and their posterity in perpetuity. The are treated with considerate respect by the servants of the Government; they swell public processions and attend at ceremonial darbars . The sons of this nobility and of the gentry are seeking Government employee and acquiring a liberal education. Their retainers similarly enjoy the bounty of the Government. The numerous dependents of the late regime are also provided for. Not only are the royal widows and their attendants being cared for but also office- beares of the Court the chamberlains the mace bearers, the soothsayers the physicians , the servants , the musicales, the men –in-waiting are all borne on the pension rolls of the British State. All these classes naturally sink into obscurity and though everything’s like spiendour has vanished yet it has not been succeeded by poverty ; and the multitude which surrounded and supported the throne of Ranjit Singh and his successors exists in substantial comfort.

“The priestly classes have also every reason to bless their new masters. The Sikh holy places have been rested . The shrines Dera Nanak Amritsar , Tarn Taran, Anadpur, retain a large portion of the endowments which a sikh Government had lavished on them. Liberality has indeed been extended to all religious characters even to mendicant fraise and village ascetics. The thousands have allowed these people to retain their petty landed grants on a life tenure. There is hardly a village mosque or a rustic temple or a shaded tomb of which the service is not supported by a few fields of rent free cultivation. These classes, though they will not become extinct will yet greatly fall below their present numbers when the existing generation shall have passed away. In the meantime they are kept contended and their indirect influence on the mass of the population is enlisted on the side of the Government.

“Among the agriculturists the influence of the chaudhris is on the decline. They are a species of local chiefs or principal resident gentry who under the Sikh regime aided in collecting the revenue and enjoyed many privileges and immunities. Many of their privileges are maintained to them but as their services are no longer required their power is on the wane. The undue power of the headmen also over the village communities has been curtailed but their legitimate position as representatives of the brotherhood has been strengthened and defined.

 

99. Grants in perpetuity provided for continuance to “male heirs”. In 1852 the Governor –General ruled that when a grant was assigned in perpetuity it lapsed to Government on the failure of legitimate male issue in the line of the original grantee that is of the person to whom the British Government had confirmed the grant . Unfortunately the original orders releasing these jagirs provided for their continuance in favor of “male issue” or male heirs” or “lineal heirs”. The fact the this might involve the frittering away among numerous shareholders of a revenue which undivided might have sufficed to uphold the dignity of the head of great family was either unnoticed or disregarded. The efforts which were subsequently made to correct this mistake concern all large jagirs thought the province and before referring to them it will be convenient to describe the origin and peculiar features of the jargirs of the Cis-Sutlej and Delhi Territories.

 

Assignments in Cis-Sutlej States.

100. History of Jagir of Cis-Sutlej peculiar. The Jagirs tenures of the districts formerly known as the Cis-Sutlej States have a history of their own. No. better account of their origin can be found than that given by Mr. Kensigton in the “Ambala Gazetteer” , which is reproduced in the following paragraphs:-

The Sikh Conquest - The storm burst at Las in 1763 . The Sikhs of the Manjha Country * * * * * combined their forces at Sirhind routed and killed the Afghan Governor Zain Khan and * * * * * occupied the whole country to the Jamna without further opposition. ‘Tradition still describes how the Sikhs dispersed as soon as battle was won and how riding day and night each horseman would throw his belt and scabbard his articles of dress and accouterment until he was almost naked into successive villages to mark them as his. The chiefs hastily divided up among themselves and their followers the whole country to the Jamna and asserted themselves as rules of the people. I a very few cases such as those of the Saiyyid Mir of Kotaha and the Raipur and Ramgarh Rajput sardars of Naraingarh and the Baidwan Jat sardars of Kharar the indigenous leaders of the country were strong enough to hold their own after a fashion and to assimilate their position to that of their conquerors. Elsewhere the Sikh rule was supreme and the experience undergone by the people of the district at the hands of these merciless invaders has left its mark on the country to the present day.

State of country before the Chiefs were taken under British protection. “The history of the next forty years is made up of the endless petty warfare of these independent Sikh Chiefs among themselves except when a common danger banded them to resist the encroachments of the more powerful States of Patiala and Manimajra on the north and Ladwa, Kaithal and Thanesar on the south. Each separate family and each group of feudatories strong enough to standout family and each group of feudatories strong enough to stand alone built itself a strong fort as a center from which it could harry the whole neighborhood. Many of these are still in existence and a marked feature of the district recalling the extraordinary lawlessness of period when literally every man’s hand was turned against his brother. No attention was paid to the country by the British Government , which had fixed the Jamna as the furthest limit for political enterprise and it is believed that profoundest ignorance prevailed both as to the constitution. The rights and the political strength of the supposed rulers.

“From 1806 to 1808 the position rapidly changed . On the one had the Cis-Sutlej chiefs themselves were panic struck at the sudden danger threatened to them by the rise of Ranjit Singh’s Power from beyond the Sutlej . In the three successive years 1806 to 1808 raids were made by Ranjit Singh in person to Ludhiana to Naraingarh and to Ambala. It was openly announced by him that he intended swallowing up the whole country of Jamna and it was released that one power and one only could prevent his immediate success. On the other hand the British Government feared a new danger from the north by a combined invasion of the French, the turks and the Persians and it was hastily decided to give up the Jamna as the boundary and to trust to the new principle of alliance with a strong buffer State at Lahroe at the same time it was recognized that Ranjit Singh was himself a source of danger not to be despised and with the Government in this mood in 1808 an impulse was easily given to the policy of active interference by the arrival at Delhi of deputation represented by Jind, Patiala and Kaithal to invoke assistance for the Cis0Sutlej States. * * * * *It was apparently assumed that the whole territory to the Sutlej was parceled out among a few leading States of the same character through whom the country could be strongly governed and the efforts of the authorities were aimed at the two fold object of on the one had securing an effective alliance with Ranjit Singh and on the other extending British protection to these lesser States ranging from the Jamna to the Sutlej. The overtures were eventually successful and a definite treaty was made with Ranjit Singh on the 25th April 1809 by which he surrendered his new acquisitions south of the Sutlej and bound himself to abstain from further encroachments on the left bank of that river. The strain from further encroachments on the left bank of that river. The treaty was followed up in May 1809 by the celebrated proclamation of Colonel Ochteriny on behalf of the British Government to the Cis-Sutlej Chiefs. The proclamation beginning with the quaint wording that it was clearer than the sun and better proved than the existence of yesterday that the British action was prompted by the chiefs themselves is given in full * * * at page 122 of the Punjab rajas. It includes seven short articles only of which No’s 1 to 5 are important Nos. 1 to 3 limited Ranjit Singh’s power and declared the Cis-Sutlej Chiefs sole owners of their possessions free of money tribute to the British ; while Nos. 4 and 5 required them in return on their side to furnish suppliers for the army and to assist the British by arms against enemies from any quarter as occasion might hereafter arise.

“ It is impossible to read the history of these transactions without seeing that the Government were reality taking a most important step almost in the dark . Instead of finding the Ambala territory under the control of a few central States they soon realized that they had given it over forever to hordes of adventures with no powers of cohesion who aimed only at mutual aggression and whose sole idea of government was to grind down the people of the country to the utmost limit of oppression. The first point was easily settled by a sharp reminder given in a supplementary proclamation of 1811 that every man would have to be content with what he held in 1809 and that the British Government would tolerate no fighting among themselves . It was however found that as a fact the so-called Cis-Sutlej Sovereign States were represented as far as Ambala was concerned by some thirty petty rulers with estates ranging from 20 to over 100 villages and by a host of small fraternities comprising many hundreds of the rank and the file among the followers of the original conquerors who had been quartered over the country with separate villages for their maintenance and who were all alike now vested with authority as independent rulers by the vague terms of the proclamation of 1809 . Published works have nowhere every clearly recognized how sorely the Government repented of its mistake but there seems no doubt as to the facts and it is not be wondered at that Sir David Ochteriony should have privately admitted to the Governor General in 1818 that the proclamation of 1809 had been based on an erroneous idea.

From 1809 to 1847 persistent efforts were made to enforce good Government through the Political Agency at Ambala Among the endless semi-independent State. The records of the time bear witness to the hopeless nature of the undertaking . They teem with references to the difficult enquiries necessitated by the frequent disputes among the principalities by their preposterous attempts to evade control and by acts of extortion and violent crime in their dealings with villages. Year by year Government was driven in self-defense to tighten the reins and every opportunity was taken to strengthen its hold on the country by enforcing its claims to lapse by escheat on the death without lineal heirs of the possessors of 1809 or their descendants . It was thus that the British district of Ambala gradually grew up each successive lapse being made the occasion for regular settlements of the village revenues and the introduction of direct British rule. At the same time Government scrupulously observed the engagements of 1809 and with the exception of the prohibition of internal war by the proclamation of 1811 . the powers and privileges of the Chiefs remained untouched. Each Chief great and small alike had within his own territory absolute civil criminal and fiscal jurisdiction subject only to the general authority of the Agent to the Governor General. No tribute was taken from them and though they were required in the case of war to aid the Government. Yet no special contingent was fixed. The right of escheats was the sole return for its protection which the Government demanded . Throughout a long period of peace during which while north of the Sutlej every vestige of independence vanished before the encroachments of Ranjit Singh the cis-Sutlej Chiefs enjoyed a complete immunity from invasion and retained undiminished rights of sovereignty . After thirty sic years with the exception of few States which had lapsed from failure of heirs each chief still found himself the ruler of the territory which he or his fathers had held at the time when they passed under British protection.

“ In 1846-47 a fresh step had to be taken owing to passive obstruction for open hostility on the part of the chiefs when called on the assist the Government with supplies and men during its campaign against the Trans-Sutlej Sikhs in 1845. No occasion had occurred for testing their gratitude for the benefits secured to them until the declaration of the first Sikh war and the Sutlej campaign of 1845. But When tested it miserably failed throughout the war few of the Chiefs displayed their loyalty more conspicuously than by abstaining from open rebellion. Their previous conduct had not been such as to encourage the British Government in its policy towards them. Almost without exception they had abused its indulgence and made the security of its protection a means of extortion and excess of every kind . There was nothing whatever to admire in the internal management or administration of their estates as was amply testified by the universal satisfaction with which the peasants of those estates, which from time to tome had lapsed came under direct British management. It has been well said that independence for these Sikh Chiefs had no nobler significance than the right to do evil without restraint and to oppress the people who were so unfortunate as to be their subjects.

“Having thus already lost the confidence of the Government, the Sikh Chiefs in the Sutlej campaign forfeited all claim to consideration . It was seen that the time had arrived for the introduction of sweeping measures of reform and the Government unhesitatingly resolved upon a reduction of their privileges . Several important measures were at once adopted . The Police jurisdiction of most unfavorable to the detection and punishment of crime. All transit and customs duties were also abolished ; and thirdly a commutation was accepted for the personal service of the Chief and his contingent. The dispatch of the Governor General , embodying this resolution was dated November 17th 1846. The only States exempted were Patiala, Jind, Nabha, Faridkot, Maler Kotla, Chhachhrauli (Kalsia), Raikot Buria, and Mamdot, With these exceptions the Police Jurisdiction was made over European Officers . The Political Agency of Ambala was transformed into a Commissioner ship under an officer styled the Commissioner of the Cis-Sutlej States. At the same time the more serious offenders in the campaign of 1845 were visited with signal punishment . Their possessions were confiscated to Government . As regards minor Chifs similar severe measures were considered unnecessary though the majority had not shown their loyalty in 1845 in any more conspicuous way than in not joining the enemy and for a short time an attempt was made to leave them the unrestricted right of collecting the revenue of their villages in kind as hitherto. It soon however, became apparent that the Chiefs deprived of their police jurisdiction were unable to collect their revenue. A proposal was therefore , made for a regular settlement of the land revenue . But before final orders had been passes upon this point the second Sikh War commenced. It ended in the annexation of the Punjab and in the removal of the political reasons which had hitherto complicated the question of the amount of power to be left to the Cis-Sutlej Chiefs . In june, 1849, it was accordingly declared that with the exception of the States already mentioned all the chiefs should cease to hold sovereign powers should lose all criminal civil and fiscal jurisdiction and should be considered as no more than ordinary subjects of the British Government in the possession of certain exceptional privileges. The revenue were still to be theirs but were to be assessed by British officers and under British rules. The final step necessitated by the march of events was taken in 1852, when the revenue settlement begun for British villages in 1847 was extended to the villages of the Chiefs.

Thereafter the chiefs have ceased to retain any refits of their former powers. They have sunk to the position of jagirdars but as such retain a right to the revenue assigned to them in perpetuity”.

Commentary

The Cis-Sutlej Jagir is not abolished by land revenue payable on small holdings . The State Government is liable to pay compensation to Jagirdars.

101. Commutation for military service. The Commutation for military service required by the 5th clause of the proclamation of 3rd May , 1809 was fixed at Rs. 16 per mensem for every horseman and Rs. 6 mensem for every footman. This however was changed in 1852 into a drawback of 2 annas per rupee of revenue in jagir estates. This is the general rate but in some cases 4 annas and 8 annas are taken and in a few jagirs the commutation was reduced to one anna on account of service rendered in the Mutiny.

102. Peculiar status of Cis-Sutlej Jagirdars. The jagirs in the Cis –Sutlej States are not the gift of the British Government as are those in the part of Punjab which was annexed after the second Sikh War. Nor do they stand on the same footing as the conquest jagirs in the tract between the Beas and the Sutlej , the holders of which are descendants of men who whether originally independent or not were subjects of the Rajas of Lahore before they came under British rule. But the Sikhs in the Cis-Sutlej States whom we transformed into jagirdars in 1847, however petty their individual holding might be were in theory and to a large extend in practice independent rulers whose ancestors had come under our protection in 1809 with a guarantee that they would remain in the exercise of the same rights and authority which they had hitherto enjoyed. It was indeed proposed in 1846 after the first Sikh war to declare all the estates forfeit on account of the lachers of their holders and to regnant them under sanads from the British Government, But Lord Hardinge deemed it impolite to proclaim to all India the misconduct of the Cis-Sutlej Jagridars great and small are mediated rulers and little though they have as a body deserved at our hands, this fact should not be lost sight of in our dealings with them.

 

103. Classification of Cis-Sutlej Jagirs - Their Jagirs are of three classes :-

(a) Large estates

(b) Pattidari Jagirs

(c) Zaildari Jagirs

There is no difficulty as to the general meaning of these terms though questions have arisen as to whether a particular Jagir should be put in the second or third class an no authoritative list of large estates has ever been drawn up.

104. Meaning of large estates pattidari jagir and zaildari jagirs. Large estates are Jagirs possessed by individual Sardars of their descendants and include a large or smaller number of villages. The pattidari and Zaildari Jagirs are held by fraternities consisting of the descendants of bodies of horsemen who overran the country when it was first conquered or who were called in later to help of original conquerors to hold it. These fraternities divided amongst themselves the villages which they seized in horseman’s shares.

Where they maintained or acquired a position independent of the great Sardars their tenures are known as pattidari jagirs. Where their holdings were subordinate to those of the Sardars who claimed the right to lapses of heiress shares they were called zaildari jagris.

105. Customary law emulating the succession to tenures of Cis-Sutlej Chiefs before 1851. The best source of information as to the rules governing the succession to the estates acquired by the Sikh conquerors of the Cis-Setlej territory before we reduced them to the status of jagirdars is sir lepel Griffin’s Law of Inheritance of Chief ships as observed by the Sikhs previous to annexation of the Punjab” Published in 1869. IN the stormy years before 1809 individual ambitions sometimes made short work of hereditary titles. But the conclusion to be drawn from the facts which sir Lepel Griffin recorded is that the real rule of succession was identical with that prescribed by the customary law regulating the descent of landed property in the Punjab . It was but natural that peasants who suddenly found themselves princes should apply to their conquests the only law of inheritance with which they were familiar . It is note worthy how often between the date of conquest and 1847 the title of a sonless widow to succeed to the enjoyment of wide possessions and authority was admitted when the right was overridden this was frequently managed in a perfectly legal way still customary throughout large parts of the Punjab by means of a karewa marriage between the widow and her deceased husband’s brother. Information regarding customary law was much more meager when Sir Lepel Griffin wrote than it is now. Had it been otherwise he would probably have modified many of the expressions and some of the conclusions in his book and distinguished more clearly between successions which took place before the date of protection and those afterwards enforced by the conflicting decisions of our political Officers. Definite rules have been made to regulate the succession to pattidari and zaildari jagirs but “The Law of Inheritance to Chiefships can still be profitably referred to when question arise as to the descent of large estates.

106. Pattidari Jagir rules to be first described. The pattidari rules will first be explained and the matters in which the tenures of zaildars and of the holders of “large estates differ from that of pattidars will then be noticed.

107. Succession to pattidari Jagirs. In 1851 the Government of India laid down the three following rules to regulate successions to horsemen’s shares in pattidari jagirs :-

(1) That no widow shall succeed.

(2) That no descendants in the female line shall inherit

(3) That on failure of direct male heir a collateral male heir may succeed if the common ancestor of the decease’s and the collateral claimant was In possession of the share at or since the period 1808-09 when our connection with the Cis-Sutlej territory first commenced.

Lord Dalhousie added “Though the rule now laid down may be at variance with the course which has been actually taken in many cases , The Governor General would by no means disturb the decisions which have been given. All parties who have received possessions from a British Officer should retain it for their lives, except females who should receive pensions instead.” This referred to a proposal by the Board that widows and daughters should be given money pensions not exceeding half their husbands’ or father’s share in 1853. The government of India decided that a title in per petty could not be acquired through females . but that males who had interrupted through females would be left in possession of their shares for life.

108. Rules not applicable to part of Cis-Sutlej Territory. The rules do not apply to the conquests on the right bank of the Sutlej made by Maharaja Ranjit Singh or his dependent Fatteh Singh Ahluwalia of Kapurthala before March 1808 which they retain after the first Sikh War and presumably the rules referred to in paragraph 87 apply to them as well as to conquest jagirs in the tract between the Beas and the Sutlej which was ceded by the Lahore Darbar at the same time.

109. Remarks on the rules. The first of the rules of 1851 was seemingly not in accordance with custom which would have given a sonless widow a life interest in her husband’s share. But if any injustice was done, it was redressed by the Board of Directors who in 1854 ordered that widows who had been dispossessed should have their pensions raised so as to equal in value the jagirs which they had lost, and that widows still in possession should not be disturbed unless they agreed to take pensions in lieu of their jagirs. The second rule in quite consonant with customary law . It appears that political officers had in some cases contrary to that law recognized the succession of daughters and daughters sons. The third rule was that proposed by two of the three members of the board Sir John Lawrence and Mr. Mansel . The President , Sir Henry Lawrence preferred the principle which had been followed in deciding the succession to the large estates of Jind and Kaithal namely that without any reference to the state of possession in 1808-09 a male descendant of the first conqueror or occupant should inherit all that had been acquired by the head of the family before the collateral branch split off from the main stock and became master of a separate estate.

110. Family custom upheld when not inconsistent with the rules. Family custom is unhealed as regards succession when it does not conflict with these rules . The custom regulating division between sons by different mothers known as chundavand will for example, be followed where it is shown to prevail in the particular family concerned.

111. Subsidiary rule sanctioned in 1852. As the enquiry proceeded it Became evident that the three rules sanctioned in 1851 did not completely cover the ground and eight subsidiary rules proposed by Mr. Edmonton the Commissioner of the Cis-sutlej States were sanctioned by the Board in 1852. These are reproduced in Appendix III to Barkley’s Directions for Settlements Officers. It is only necessary to quote four of them here:-

(a) That a specific order of a Government even though opposed to the principles and rules now prescribed shall avail in fervor of the party concerned and his lineal male heirs.

(b) That the official and recorded declaration of the Political Agent as to the person in possession 1808-09 shall be accepted without questions and succession continued accordingly.

(c) That allegations by a Jagirdar or pattidar of portions of his holding whether to his relations or strangers shall neither be officially recognized nor officially recorded.

(d) That one or more sons of a common ancestor in 1808-09 being entitled to the whole share possessed by such common ancestor shall be held and be declared responsible for the maintenance of widows left by deceased brothers who had they lived would have shared with such son or sons.

112. Investigation of pattidari jagirs at 1st regular settlement of Cis-Sutlej States. To ensure the carrying out of the third of Lord Dalhousie’s rules the settlement officer of the Cis-Sutlej States was ordered to investigate the state of possession in 1808-09 and to draw up a genealogical tree of every family in occupation of a share of a pattidari Jagir tracing the descent of existing holders from the persons in possession at that period “Family” when used in connection with a Cis-Sutlej Jagir means a group consisting of the male descendants of the holder of the Jagir in 1808-09

113. Revision of Jagir registers of Ambala and Karnal at revised settlements. At the revised settlements of Ambala and tahsils . Thanesar and Kalthal and pargana indri of Karnal made by Mr. Kensington and Mr. Duie the jagir register of these two districts were scrutinized and new registers in a more compact and convenient form were drawn up . These include all the three classes of Cis-Sutlej Jagirs the conditions of each jagir with a reference to the order determining them and the rate of the commutation paid to Government were noted. A genealogical tree of each family showing all existing descendants of the person in possession in 1808-09 or other date which determines the right of succession and a list giving the name of each of the shareholders of 1888 with the fraction representing his share and the value of that fraction in money are included in the registers and a simple method of regarding successions and lapses has been provided . The rule of succession followed where there are sons by two or more wives will be found recorded in the registers.

114. Rules regarding Zaildari jagirs - As already indicated the only real difference between a pattidari and a zaildari jagir is that lapses in the former benefit Government, while lapses in the latter accrue to the holder of a “large estate”. It was ruled in 1852 at Mr. Edmonstone’s suggestion:-

(a) That the inquiry then being made into pattidars jagir tenures should not extend to the possessions of the zaildars or dependants of an individual Sardar during the lifetime of such Sardar.

(b) That on the estate of that Sardar lapsing the possession of his zaildars should be enquired into ascertained and recorded and that from and after the date of the lapse of the Sardar’s estate lapses of the zaildars shares and successions to the same should follow the first and second of the rules prescribed by the orders of Government No. 461, dated 12th February 1851.

115. Meaning of second-rule. The wording of the second of these rules is not very explicit but it seems clear that Mr. Edmonstone’s meaning was that in the case of zaildari jagirs dependent on a large estate” the enquiry should only go back to possession as it stood at the time when the large estate lapsed and extend to successions which had taken place since. This was the course actually adopted in the case of the zaildars of the Dialgarh State which lapsed about the time when Mr. Edmonstone made his proposals they were given the status of 1852. The intention of the rule was either overlooked or misunderstood for at the first regular settlements of Ambala and Thanesar the zaildars of several lapsed estates were given the status of 1808-09 and it has been decided that the orders then passed shall not be distributed.

116. Status of 1847 given to zaildars of large estates in existence in 1854. In 1854 , the Chief Commissioner at the suggestion of Mr. Edmonstone who had become Financial Commissioner modified the two rules relating to zaildari tenures quoted above and decided that 1847, the year in which the Sardars were deprived of their sovereign powers should be assumed as the basis of adjudication in all disputes between Jagirdars and zaildars as to the shares of the latter. It is clear from the correspondence which took place at the time that the reason for taking the date 1847 instead of 1809 was to protect the zaildars from harsh claims on the part of the Sardars. It was felt that endless disputes and claims would arise if the status of 1808-09 were taken as defining the tenure of the former. It was soon seen that the new rule cut both ways and would in the further be prejudicial to the zaildars and in 1856 the Commissioner of the Cis-Sutlej States tried to have the rule modified but without success. All zaildars of “large estates” still in existence in 1854 have therefore the status of 1847.

117. Peculiar rules regulating succession in case of Jagirs of Maharaja in Ferozepur. The numerous peasant jagirdars of Maharaj and Bhucho in Ferozepore who claim kinship with the great Phulkian houses own the jagir holdings and have peculiar rules of their own Government has given up it right to lapses in consideration of a petty increase in the rate of commutation payable and succession follows the law of inheritance applicable to the landed estate. Hence widows enjoy their husband’s shares so long as they refrain from a second marriage.

118. No absolute rule prescribed to regulate succession in large estates. In the orders passed in 1`851 Lord Dahousie stated that he did “not see any necessity for establishing an absolute rule in the case of large estates. Each case may without any difficulty and with great advantage be determined upon it own merits as it arises. His Lordship would however remark genially that consideration of the custom of families should have a preponderating influence in the decision of such cases. Such estates were therefore excluded from the enquiry which the Settlement Officer was directed to make regarding pattidari jagirs and the Board ordered that each demise should be reported with a statement of the custom of the family.

119. Meaning of Large estate Some difficulty was felt in determining what was and what was not a large estate. Mr. Emonstone wrote to the Board:-

“Presume that the term large estate was meant to comprehend such estates as Buria, Shahzadpur, Manimajra, Sialba, and others which are held not by fraternitites of pattidars as the pattidars of Bilaspur , Sadhara, Thirwa, Ambala an Boh, for instance in fractional horsemen’s shares but by an individual Sardar, as the sardar of Buria or by the descendants of one or more Sardars as the Singhs purias. I find it difficult to propose any definition of the term large estate and am compelled therefore to exemplify my meaning . If the Board concur with me in thinking that the term is not exclusively applicable to the nine sovereign states, it might be sufficient to declare generally that the orders communicated with your letter above referred to are applicable only to estates which are held by fraternities of pattidars and in which the distribution of the holding according to horsemen’s shares is recognized leaving any cases which may admit of doubt after the declaration of this principle to be specially reported. Under this rule the estates of Buria and Raipur in regard to both of which I have receive d separate references from Mr. Wynyard would be considered large estates and exempt from enquiry into the status of 1808-09.

The Board accepted as correct Mr. Edmonstone’s view.

120. Status of 1808-09 how far applicable in case of large estates. It is stated in Mr. Barkley’s Directions to Settlement Officers:-

“In practice the status of 1808-09 though not absolutely prescribed for guidance by Government, has almost invariably been referred to as governing claims of collateral’s to succeed to rage estates the custom of the family being referred to only to determine whether the estate shuld descend integrally or be divided among the nearest heirs. Either unequal or unequal shares, what provisions should be made for windows and other points of the like nature.”

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121. Fe precedents available. As early as 1859, we find the commissioner of the Cis-Sutlej states in a letter dealing specially with large estates writing that we have taken the status of 1809 A.D. and have declared all jargirs separately held at that date as separate fields inheritable only in a direct male line. But it seems doubtful if the question whether the status of 1808-09. Does or does not govern succession to large estates has often been discussed. Very few “large estates have lapsed in default to direct heirs” though it is notorious that in some cases the present jagirdars are unrelated either to the original conqueror or to the sardar in possession in 1808-09. No shame has been felt in foisting on Government suppositious heirs when the succession to a jagir was endangered by want of issue.

122. Date to be adopted in deciding question who was in possession in 1808-09. No question in likely to arise in the case of pattidari Jagirs as to the exact date referred to in the phrase-“ the status of 1808-09” . The record of the persons in possession in `1808-09 made at the first regular settlement would be treated as finally deciding from whom a claimant must trace descent in order to inherit a share . But large estates were exempted from enquiry in 1851 an if the status of 1808-09 is taken as determining the succession to a large estate it may be necessary to decide who was in possession at a particular date in the period loosely described as 1808-09. In such a case the best date to adopt in March 1808 that being the month in which some of the principal Cis-Sutlej Chiefs formally applied for the protection of the British Government.

 

123. Family custom governs succession in case of large estates. In dealing with the succession to a large estate. Lord Dalhousie directed that special attention should be given to family custom. Primogeniture will be follwed where it is the established custom as it is in the case of the Pathan Nawabs of Kunjpura and in the Rajput jargirdar family of Raipur. IT is probable that among Jat or Khatri Sikh Jagirdars no family will be found in which primogeniture is really customary. But in some families it is undoubtedly the rule to give a particular son a share larger than that allotted to his brethren under the name of Sardari to mark the fact that he is the head of the family. Where any such custom is shown to prevail, it should be enforced.

The issue of a ayah or sacramental marriage with a virgin and of a karewa or informal marriage by chadar-andazi with a window are equally legitimate and when the rule of division between sons prevails stand on the same footing. It was ruled in the case of Kheri Jagir in Ludhiana that legitimate sons would always exclude illegitimate in the succession to “large estates”.

Whether illegitimacy as we understand the term is a bar to succession when there is no legitimate offspring is a question to be decided if possible by the custom of the family concerned . The sons of handmaids (khwas) have succeeded to independent RajputChiefships in the absence of children by wedded wives, and if a similar custom is pleaded in connection with any Cis-Sutlej jagir, the claim can not be set aside at once as preposterous for the customs of Jats of the Punjab as regards marriage and legitimacy resemble those of a primitive Eastern Societyas depicted in the books of Genesis and Ruth rather than the law of European countries in the case of the Sohana Jagir which belongs to a Jat Sikh family indigenous to the Ambala district, it was lately held that the Sardar’s son by a Jat window of good family living in his house and whom he could have espoused,but with whom no ceremony of chadarandazi had been performed, is entitled to inherit . The reason given was that a similar case had occurred in the family years before. The issue of an adulterous connection with a married woman would of the course be excluded.

 

124. Maintenance to widows and others. The amount of the maintenance to be given to widows of deceased holders should be decided mainly with reference to past practice and this also applies to the allowances to male members of a family in which primogeniture has been established by custom or agreement.

 

125. Jagirs shared by Jat Sikhs from the Manjha and influential local chiefs or families. When the Sikhs overran the country between the Sutlej and the Jumna, They found some chiefs and families who were to strong to be disposed. Hence we find among the Cis-Sutlej jagirs some large estates held by Rajputs like the Raos of Raipur or Pathans like the Nawab of Kunjpura. Some influential families were conciliated by being allowed to retain a share of the revenues of conquered villages . A case of the kind is that of the chaudhris of Kharar who have a seventh share of the revenue of 42 estates. They were put on the same footing as regards lapses and commutation as other Cis-Sutlej Jagirdars except that the succession was limited to heirs male of the person in possession in 1853, when the above orders were passed. In the same way in the Jagadhri tehsil of Ambala a Rajput Family has a share in the Leda Jagir and the Afghans of Khizrabad divide the revenues of eleven British and some kalsia villages with Jat Sikhs and have always been treated as ordinary Jagirdars.

 

126. Chaharami tenures in tahsil Thanesar of the Karnal district. There is a strong analogy between these mixed jagirs and the chaharmi tenures in the Thansesar tahsil of Karnal described in the 96th paragraph of the Karnal –Ambala Settlement Report. But they have not been treated in quite the same way. The chaharami knows are for the most part full owners or have superior proprietary rights in the lands of which they enjoy a share usually half but sometimes one–fourth or one fifth of the land revenue. The shares are often extremely small and lands subject to the chaharami right have not infrequently been sold or mortgaged the chaharami passing with the land to the transferee. No final decision as to these tenures was arrived at the first regular settlement and the conditions on which these peculiar assignments are held were only finally settled in 1889. There was it was allowed no real analogy between chaharamis and zaildari jagirs but Sir James Lyall considered that it had been the intention of the Settlement Officer at the first regular settlement to treat them as on the same footing. He accordingly gave the following ruling.

“According to this view the chaharami holding in each village will be treated as zaildari holding created by the original sikh Jagirdar conquerors of the village and so long as in each village a part of the Sikh Jagir remains un resumed so long these holdings will not be resumed . Whenever in any village the whole of the Sikh Jagir has lapsed The whole of the Chaharami grants will be resumed at once. Till then in accordance with the analogy of Rule 12(V) of the supplementary rule for jagirdars alienations will not be treated as a good ground for resuming part of a chaharami grant.

The contingency of the whole of the shares held by Sikh Jagirdars in the chaharami estates lapsing is probably a very remote one but it may be pointed out that it is not a feature of the zaildari tenure that the shares of zaildars should lapse to Government when the major jagir escheats of which they are dependents.

 

127. Mafis Cis-Sutlej khalsa estates. Ordinary mafls in khalsa estates in the cis-sutlej territory are governed by the same rules as those in the Punjab proper. The case of mafls in jagir and shared estates will be noticed later.

 

Assignments in Delhi territory

128. Mr. Barkley’s remarks on assignments in the Delhi territory. It is stated in Mr. Barkley;s Directions for Settlement Officers published in 1875 that “Investigations in the portions of the (province) which were formerly under the Government of the North Western Provinces made prior to their annexation to the Punjab took place under the Regulations XXXI and XXXVI of 1803 and tenures released in perpetuity under these regulations descend by the ordinary law of inheritance and are transferable. Where any limitation was imposed by the terms of the grant either upon the succession or upon the right to transfer the tenure this of course does not apply and the Punjab rules are applicable to the fullest extent to grants made after 1857.” This statement of the case requires some amplification and correction.

 

129. Regulations XXXI and CCCVI of 1803. Regulation XXXI of 1803 declared what grants other than “royal” or “badshahi” grants should be considered valid in the “ceded provinces and provided for their registration and for adjudication upon them in the courts of law. Regulation XXXVI of 1803 enacted similar provisions for “royal grants” i.e, all grants made by the supreme power for the time being . The full definition of royal grants includes assignments made by several authorities who were only nominally subject to the Delhi Emperor, but probably all royal grants in the Delhi territory emanated direct from the Emperor or from Daulat Rao Sindhia or one of his predecessors in authority as Mayor of the palace.

 

130. Assignments confirmed under the regulations regarded as private property and therefore transferable. The theory of the nature of a land revenue assignment embodied in these two regulations is wholly opposed to that has always been held regarding such grants in the Punjab. They were looked upon as private property which could be transferred from hand to hand. Revenue free tenures were classed as “hereditary” i, e. perpetuity grants and “life” grants. “Hereditary” grants were transferable by gift , sale or otherwise, but in the case of life grants the only alienation permitted was a mortgage of the revenue for the life of the grantee. It is needless to describe what under these regulations were declared to be sufficient grounds for accepting a claim to hold land revenue free. It is enough to note that assignments of land not exceeding then bighas. In extent and bona fide appropriated as an endowment for temples or for other religious of charitable purposes were put on a specially favourable footing in this respect . Certain unfamiliar terms which are met with in discussions regarding assignments in the Delhi territory, altamgha , aima, madad m’ash, taiul are explained in the glossary.

 

131. The regulation law not strictly applicable to the Delhi territory - The Delhi territory formed no part of the “ceded province” which came under British rule in 1801 and to which the above regulations alone applied. It was part of the conquered provinces annexed after the battle of Laswari in 1803. Regulation VII of 1805 which extended these and other regulations to the “conquered provinces” excepted the Delhi territory from their operation . But regulation V of 1832 which abolished the office of resident at Delhi and annexed the Delhi territory to the jurisdiction of the sadder Board and courts of Justice at Allahabad enjoined the Commissioner of Delhi and all officers under his control ordinarily to conform to the principles and spirit of the regulations. In their civil , criminal and revenue administration . In 1838 and 1841 the sadr Board issued orders regarding the investigation of revenue free tenures which were not in exact accordance with the regulation law.

 

132. Orders passed in 1880. The question of the conditions on which as signments in the Delhi territory made before its annexation to the Punjab was carefully gone into in connection with the revenue free tenures of tahsil Panipat and Pargana Karnal of the Karnal district, a report on which was furnished by Mr. Ibbetson in 1880. It was then held.

(a) that the regulations were never actually in force in the Delhi territory . while therefore any orders which the revenue authorities of the day passed in accordance with the regulation law should be upheld Government was also free to maintain orders, if any, passed by them in special cases which were not in accordance with that laws ;

(b) that “hereditary” grants were alienable as similar grants under the regulation law were, but that they lapsed to Government on entire failure of heirs of the original grantee notwithstanding any intermediate alienation;

(c) that the condition “continued until further orders” found to be attached to some of the assignments was analogous to he condition during the pleasure of Government “ common in the case of grants in the Punjab , It was not equivalent to a grant in perpetuity though the contingency of the grant being really a perpetual one was not definitely excluded in the case of an order sanctioning an assignment during the pleasure of Government which implies an absolute decision that a perpetuity title has not been made out;

(d) that it was the intention that orders passed by a Settlement Officer confirming assignments of less than ten bighas as an endowment for temples or other religious or charitable purposes should be final and that the assignments should be released in perpetuity;

(e) that the Board of Revenue of the North –Western Provinces had no power to sanction release in perpetuity. Where an order of the Board is the only sanction for such a release, the confirmation of the Punjab Government is required . Final sanction not having been given in the case of such assignments before 1858, they are not transferable.

 

133. Succession to perpetuity grants. Being regarded as private property assignments made before 1858 in the Delhi territory descend by the rule of inheritance applicable to landed estates to which the grantee’s family is subject. Any express condition of grant , however which conflicted with this rule would prevail.

 

134. Istamrar grants- The revenues free tenure known as istamrar is not wholly confined to the Delhi territory. (The Khattak Nawab of Teri holds a large tract in the Kohat district in istamrar.)But as the lage Mandal grant in connection with which the incidents of this tenure have been chiefly discussed is situated in the Karnal district, it will be well to explain the term here. An istamrar is simply an assignment for life or perpetuity of the right to receive the revenue of a tract of land, subject to the obligation to pay to Government a lump sum of money year by year. This sum is sometimes loosely described as a quit rent. It is really a nazrana of fixed amount. The istamrardar may also be sole proprietor or may have the right of a superior owner of talukdar in the assigned tract. But, whatever may have been the real origin of any such rights which he may possess, they are under our revenue system viewed as something entirely apart from the istamrar. Except as regards cesses imposed in addition to the land revenue, Government neither gains nor loses by the reassessment of estates held on an istamrar tenure an any loses due to remissions fall on the istamrardar.

 

135. Sukhlambari grants in Hissar. The sukhlambari grants in the Hissar district are grants of land revenue free for three generations made to troopers and officers of regiments of irregular cavalry disbanded after the conclusion of the pindari campaign in 1818 or 1819. As revenue free assignments they are now nearly extinct and are only interesting as an early experiment in the colonization of waste lands.(For details see paragraphs 259-61 of Mr. Willsons Sirsa Settlement Report and Hissar Gazetteer, Pages 160-161.

 

136. Inams of Biloch Tumandars 136 . The history of the jagirs or inams of the Biloch tumandars of the Dera Ghazi Khan district present some peculiar features and is also deserving of notice on account of the emphatic way in which the principle that jagris involve an obligations of service has been asserted and enforced. An excellent account of it is given in the 98th paragraph of Mr. Diack’s Settlement Report, from which the following extracts are taken :-

“ The greater part of the assigned land revenue is enjoyed by the chiefs of Biloch tribes and is well repaid by the important administrative and magisterial functions which they discharge. It was not until the last settlement that any considerable amount of revenue was assigned to them. From annexation up till then they occupied the position of mustajirs that is to say, they collected in kindfrom their tribes the share of the produce varying from one-seventh to one-third which was under native rule taken by Government and they paid into the treasury the cash land revenue assessed upon the villages of their tribe. At the regular settlement of the district it was decided that assignments of land revenue should take the place of the profits which, owing to mild cash assessment increase of cultivation and rise of prices, they derived from this arrangement. The cash value of the assignment to each Chief was fixed with reference to his previous income from this source to his expectations and to his responsibilities. But although the value of the assignment was calculated in cash the power of collecting in kind was not withdrawn but was merely limited to selected villages whose cash assessment made up the sanctioned amount of the chiefs inam. The power of collecting assigned revenue in kind was legalized by Frontier Regulations No. VII of 1874, the custom of collecting in kind had fallen into abeyance in two tribes. Those of Kasranis and the Khosas and was not revived in the former tribe but was in the latter to the extent of one-fourth of the revenue . The share of the produce to be taken by the Chief was to be fixed so as not to exceed that portion of the producewhich might be deemed fairly to represent the Government demand.

 

All the grants were conditional upon good and loyal service to be rendered by the tumandars on occasions of importance whenever called upon by the district officer and in connection with this condition it was stipulated that sowars should be supplied by each Chief to a certain value , the sowar’s pay being fixed at 4 annas a day any sowars required in addition to the number making up the fixed value to be paid by Government. The assignments were made for term of settlement and subject to reconsideration on its expiration The grants have had an excellent effect in improving the condition of the Chiefs and through them of their tribes which are generally in excellent control, and there was no question at this settlement of discontinuing the allowances to the Chiefs. The working of the system by which they are allowed power to collect in kind was however considered very carefully with reference to the provisions which had been made at the regular settlement that the power would be enjoyed only during the pleasure of Government and would be liable to be withdrawn should such as course be deemed to be expedient. The conclusion arrived at was that the system should be continued except in the Khosa tribe.(Punjab Government letter No. 40, dated March 1897.)

    * * * * *

The decision to continue the privilege in the case of the other Chiefs who had hitherto enjoyed itnecessitated a reconsideration of the cash value in the inams for in villages which have improved during the period of the late settlement the share of the produce taken by the tumandar is the equivalent of the cash assessment as now enhanced and while the amount received by the tumandars is the same as in recent years his inanam expressed in terms of the Government cash revenue is greater than it was.”

In sanctioning the inams for the term of the new settlement the supreme Government remarked(Government of India , Foreign Department No. 2847-F dated 31st October 1899) :-

The Government of India cordially endorsee the views of the lieutenant Governor as to the importance of maintaining the position and influence of these Chiefs. * * * * * The inams are subject to the same conditions of loyalty and service as hereto fore**** The Government of India entirely concur in the decision. * * * * to permit collections in kind to continue in all cases (except that of the Khosa inam) in which they had hithertobeen authorized . It is very important in the interests of good administration on this part of the border to prevent as far as possible any weakening of the tie betweenthe tumandar and his tribesmen.”

 

136 –A . Abolition of batia jagir system in Dera Ghazi Khan district -The revision of settlement in the Dera Ghazi Khan district was begun in 1916 and was concluded in 1920. Fresh sanction then became necessary to the continuance of these inams which had been sanctioned for the term of settlement.

 

There was during the course of settlement operations a vigorous agitation against the continuance of the batal jagir systemand it lost none of its force after the conclusion of the settlement. After full consideration of the advantages and disadvantes of the system. Government gave an undertaking in the Legislative Council in 1925 to abolish it within the next five years. In fulfillment of that undertaking Government reported early in 1928 (Punjab Government letter No. 527-R dated 8th January 1928.) to the Government of India its proposals for the substitution of cash inams to the turmandars in place of the old batal inams. The latter Government gave their general assent (Government of India letter No. 117-F-28 dated 10th September, 1928 .) to the proposal but declined to contribute anything towards the extra expenditure involved by conversion.

The system was consequently abolished (Punjab Government letter No. 5844-R dated 4th December, 1928. )with effect from kharif The old batal inams were translated into cash inams for the term of settlement.

Strictly according to terms of 1899, there was no obligation devolving on Government to supplement the old batal inams on their translation into cash. Nevertheless, the outstanding liberality with which the tumandars had been treated in the past made it undesirable that the abolition of collections in kind should bring about any substantial loss in their emoluments . The Governor in Council accordingly decided as an act of grace to award supplementary cash inams to the tumandars in addition to the cash value of their batal inams for the term of settlement or for life whichever period may be shorter.

Both the converted and supplementary inams are grants for services rendered and to be rendered both in the plains and in the tuman areas within the hills and are conditional on loyalty and active assistance to Government as well as on the maintenance of the traditionalhospitality expected from the Chiefs . Government retains the right of reducing or confiscating the inams at any time . if it is of opinion that the conditions are not being satisfactorily fulfilled.

 

137. Kasuras in Dera Ghazi Khan. The “Kasur” Assignments of the Dera Ghazi Khan district are identical in origin with the “chahanams” referred to in paragraph 82. The principal “kasurs” are in the territory held by the Mazari tribe about half the revenue of which is releases in this form

They are held by the family of the Chief of the Mazari tribe of Blotches and by the other leading families of the Balachani section of the tribe to which section the Chief belongs . Those Balachants hld among them assignments of land revenue in all the villages of the most Mazari Country though they are not landowners in all of them . Most of the assignments are of half the Government share of the produce though some are of a smaller fraction and it is from their being of a fractional nature that they have derived the name kasur (the Arabic plural of kasur) by which they are locally known. The appear to have been granted from time to time by the rulers who established their authority in this neighborhood. The Nahrs of Sitpur the Makhdums who succeeded them and the Amirs of Sindh and were a proof of the strength and turbulence of the tribes and the weakness of the rulers control. ( Punjab Government No. 62 dated 7th August 1900.)

Consequent on the abolition of the batoi jagir system the questionof kasurs which were bound up with collections in kind was reconsidered. It was decided(Punjab Government letter No. 3018-Rdated 11th November 1930.)that the ‘A’ class kasurs (i,e. remission of half land revenue) of the Mazri , Karmani, Mistakeni and Gulsherani families should be continued on their ancestral proprietary lands, subjects as before to the condition of loyalty and good service. The kasurs are inalienable and liable to resumption under orders of Government. The other kasures in the Mazari tuman were converted into forty –three cash inams of Rs. 40 each per annum to be paid out of the treasury . The grantee is to be selected by the Deputy Commissioner in consultation with the tumandar and the tenure of the inam is ordinarily to be five years.

 

138. Military rewards grants. A very common way of rewarding Indian officers for distinguished war services has been to gave them grants of Government waste land revenue –free for a certain number of years , with a promise of ownership when the lands had been brought under cultivation . Many such grants were made in the Punjab. Owing to the diminution in the area available it was decided in 1888 that they should be limited to a flexed number yearly(Government of India , Military Department , resolution No. 2525-B dated 1st December 1888). The above conditions are not necessarily applicable in all cases .It is left to the local Government to arrange the grant as it chooses , provided its capitalized value is equal to 25 times the annual value specified in the order making it ( Government of India ,Military Department No. 1271 (B. dated 12th April 1901.) and at the same time the terms on which they should be held were laid down as follows:-

(Government of India resolution No. 867-B dated 17th February , 1893)

(a) The land to be held subject to payment of revenue assessed upon it or (if it is not assessed to the payment of revenue subject to the payment of revenue at the rates at which land in the immediate vacinity is assessed provided that if the land is waste land requiring clearance the grantee will be allowed the ordinary concession which would be allowed to vendees at public auctions of Government land of two harvests frees of land revenue.

(b) Canal rates and cesses to be paid in full by the grantee from the beginning of the lease. He shall also pay malikana at the rate in force in the tract concerned provided that no malikana will be charged in the case of grant which does not exceed one square or rectangle.

(c) The grant to be leasehold for the first ten years and proprietary rights to be given after the end of the that term if the land has been properly brought under cultivation and the grantee has made good use of his grant.

(d) All grants are subject to the loyalty and good behaviour of the grantee.

(e) When a grant of irrigable land is under contemplation reference must be made to Irrigation Department before any promises of irrigation are given to the grantee. If the Irrigation Department decide that irrigation is not possible the grantee should be informed and an acknowledgement obtained from him that he agrees to take the land on the understanding that irrigation cannot be extended to it.

 

139. Jagirs may be substituted for grants of waste land. The matter was reconsidered in 1893, and it was settled that where it was inconvenient to make grants of waste land the reward might take the form of a jagir . At the same time the maximum value of a grant of land was fixed at Rs. 400 per annum clear of all deductions.

“When the Local Government is prepared to provide a grant of land and the grantee accepts this form of reward it will be open to the Local Government to arrange for the bestowal of the privileges connected with the grant in such a way that the difference between the value of the grant on the terms given and the market value may amount approximately to 25 times the annual value specified in the orders of the Government of India on each case, such value being limited to the maximum of Rs. 400 as noted above. Should the Local Government not be prepared to give land or the grantee be unwilling to accept his reward in this form, the grantee will be given an assignment of revenue from any village or estate that may be selected . If an assignment of revenue be given such assignments will be for three lives only , the maximum amount of revenue assigned to the original grantee being Rs. 600 to the first heir Rs. 300 and to the next heir in succession Rs. 150. The method in which the assigned revenues are to be paid i.e, whether from the state treasury or by the land owners direct will be left to Local Governments to decide but the amount should be flexed in cash and not in terms of the land revenue. When the grantee is a landholder the assignment may take the form of remission of a specified amount of the revenue due from himself. (Government of India, Military Department, resolution No. 867-B, dated 27th February 1893. Also see paragraph 58(6) and (7) of Financial Commissioner’s Standing Order No.7.

The financial Commissioner at the time pointed out the objections which existed to the creation of new jagirs except: -

(a) When the jagridar is owner of the land of which the revenue is as signed:

(b) When he stands in the tribal relation to the revenue payers and the recognition of his status is in accordance with their ideas:

(c) In the absence of the above conditions , when he has nothing to do with the collection of the revenue , which is paid to him through the tahsil. (Financial Commissioner’s No. 11-C, dated 25th May 1893.

 

The Local Government acquiresed in these views.(Punjab Government Nos. 343-S., dated 1st July 1893, and 758, dated 24th August, 1902.) In practice no difficulty has arisen for in all jagirs of this class hitherto created in the Punjab the assignee receives the revenue through the tahsil.

 

The rule of decent in the case of these military jagirs is as follows :-

On the death of the original holder one-half of the grant should descend integrally to a single heir. The heir will be selected by the district officer , but will ordinarily be the eldest male heir in the eldest branch of the deceased’s descendants. On the death of the selected heir one quarter of the originalgrant will descend integrally to one of his heirs similarly chosen by the district officer. The selection made by the Commissioner of the division”.(Government of India, Military Department , No 3293-B, dated 24th October , 1893.

 

Note :- The rule that grant should descend integrally to a single heir may be relaxed at the discretion of the local Government and the reduced grant i.,e the grant after the death of the original grantee may be distributed among several heirs in such proportional as may seem most suitable, provided that the proper proportion of the original grant is not exceeded. (Dispatch from His Majesty’s Secretary of State for India , No. 50-Fin., dated 20th December , 1918.”)

 

139. A Substitution of cash payment in place of jagir or special pension. Towards the close of 1930, the Government of India. Army Department, decided (Army instruction (India )No.102, dated 16th September, 1930.) that with effect from 1st January 1931, cash payments amounting to Rs. 600 per year should be granted in place of jagirs in the form of assignments of remissions of land revenue and of the special pensions granted to Indian Officers resident in Indian States . The cash payments which will like Jagirs, be for three lives reducible by half on each succession will be known as “Jagir allowances” and will be paid by the military authorities themselves without any reference to the civil authorities this change in no way affects the form of , or the status and dignity attached to jagirs granted before the passing of these orders.

 

139-B. Scheme for giving retired Indian Officers the option of taking an assignment of land revenue in lieu of pension - A scheme approved(Government of India Army Department letter No. 17869-1 (A.G. 10)dated 9th February 1914. and introduced by the Local Government in 1914, whereby retired Indian Officers of the Indian Army when they belong to the agricultural classes have the option of taking an assignment of land revenue in lieu of pension , is also in operation. 139 –C Special Jagirs . In 1917 a scheme for the creation of new jagirs was sanctioned (Government of India, Department of Revenue and Agriculture letter No. 887-205-2 dated 30th October, 1916.) by the Secretary of state in accordance with which jagirs are granted by the Punjab Government for the life of the original holder, half of the sum assigned being continued for the next generation. Only a single descendant in the mainline of descent of the original jagirdar living at the time of his death can be selected as his successor and the orders of the Governor in Council are required in each case. Attached to all such grants is a definite condition of “Continued good conduct and steadfast loyalty to His Majesty the King Emperor and active good service to the public or to the Government established by law in British Indian rendered to the best of the Jagirdar’s ability and power.”

 

140. Jagirs granted after 25th November, 1859 heritable by a single heir - As already stated a marked change of feeling is observable after the mutiny as to the value to the State of a class of men holding a privileged position and fitted thereby to act as leaders of the people. In 1859 the Lieutenant –Governor, Sir Robert Montgomery proposed that as a rule the heirs of jagirs enjoyed by families of importance should be declared subject to selection by Government.”(Punjab Government No. 678 dated 4th Oct. 1859) Lord Canning replied that he did not see how such a declaration could be made in regard to existing jagirs . He added , however :-

“With regard to jagirs which may hereafter be granted His Excellency has no objection to impose the general condition that the estate shall be inherited integrally. * * * As to the one single heir His Excellency is disposed to think that it will be quite enough for the Government to require that his inheritance shall need confirmation or recognition by Government before it is considered complete and to make it known that this recognition may if cause should arise be withheld.”

The letter containing this order was dated 25th November , 1859 and all jagirs subsequently granted are unless the contrary is clearly expressed in the grant , heritable by a single heir whose succession required to be confirmed by Government.” ( Government of India No. 476, dated 25th November 1859

 

141. Proposal to introduce primogeniture in case of the principal jagirs - Before these orders were issued the Lieutenant-Governor had proposed to consult the principal Sardars in the Cis-Sutlej and Trans-Sutlej divisions as to the propriety of abolishing chundavand where it existed and also marking primogeniture the rule of decent for their jagirs. In advocating primogeniture the Cis-Sutlej Commissioner , Mr. Barnes had written :-

“I should desire in all feasible cases to institute the law of primogeniture as was recently done in the case of ramgarh and thereby to secure a powerful and influential aristocracy who with such guarantees would doubtless be as loyal and as useful to Government as they proved to be during the recent rebellion.”

 

142. Proposal agreed to by Lord Canning. Chundavand and been denounced as immoral and as encouraging polygamy. Lord canning wisely brushed that argument aside. But as regards primogeniture his reply was encouraging. The proposal to consult the leading Sardars regarding it was approved but anything like arbitrary legislation on the subject was deprecated and it was laid down that “no alternation in the rule of inheritance should be made in a family unless with the consent of its head and of the chief members interested.( Government of India. No. 1718 , dated May 1860. Paragraphs 2,4,5,6 of circular letter No. 246-252, dated 6th April 1861.)

 

143. His reasons - The reasons given by Lord canning for his decision are worth quoting :-

“It is politically desirable that primogeniture should be encouraged. The governor-general believes that a more unfortunate prospect cannot be before a people, especially a people amongst whom society is of a feudal form , than that of the gradual dissolution of all their wealthy and influential families into numerous poor and proud descendants. His excellency also believes that the task of governing such a people in contentment becomes more and more difficult as this change progresses. “

 

144. Instructions issued in 1861. The enquiry which followed seemed to show that a number of the larger Jagirdars were ready to elect for primogeniture and in April 1861 the following instructions were given to Cis-Indus Commissioners:-

“Those jagirdars holding in perpetuity whose revenue exceeds Rs. 250 per annum and who wish the succession of their jagirs to be regulated in future by the rule of primogeniture must executor a deed to that effect . You will explain to them that this deed when confirmed by Government will hereafter he binding on their successors in the jagirs for all generations . Where such a deed has already been taken it need only be reviewed with reference to the instructions now conveyed.

“4. The deed will regulate the succession only to jagir lands not to malguzari lands or other real and personal property.

“5. The jagirdar executing the deed should be invited to record separately the nature and amount of the maintenance which he would propose to assign to the younger branches of his family. The custom regulating such maintenance in the case of the younger brothers of chiefs in whose families the rule of primogeniture has been long established will serve as a guide for other jagirdars.

“6. It should be explained that the rights of collateral’s are in no respect affected by the introduction of the rule of primogeniture.”

Informing the Government of India of the action that had been taken the Lieutenant- Governor remark :-

“One important point only remains to be adverted to namely the force ofthe deed executed by the jagirdars declaring that primogeniture shall be the rule of succession to their jagirs.

 

This point however will be discussed at length when the reports of the several Commissioners and the deeds themselves shall have been transmitted to this office.”

 

145. Negotiations prove abortive - The number of deeds executed was forty seven. Many of these declared that primogeniture should thereafter be the rule of succession and fixed a rate of maintenance for younger sons. Others provided for division among sons, but allotted a larger share to the eldest of fittest son. By some mischance these deeds were never confirmed by Government but several have since been accepted and where the circumstances of each case were consistent with the provisions of sections 7(1)(b) of the Punjab Jagirs Act, V of 1941 mentioned in paragraph 157 a rule of primogeniture has been notified.

 

146. Reasons why evil results have no been worse - The failure to carry the negotiations with the leading jagirdars to a successful conclusion is much to e regretted. The matter was not dealt with again comprehensively for whole generation during which sub-division went on unchecked . The resultant evils would be even more apparent than they are but for the fact that many of the large jagirdars at least in the Cis – Sutlej territory have found it difficult to perpetuate their families at all and have considered themselves fortunate when they have had a single son to inherit their family honors. As regards the important political jagirs in the tarns- Indus districts little difficulty has arisen for most of them were granted or confirmed after 1859 and in the case of some jagirs of earlier date the succession of a single heir is either provided for by the original order of release or has been established by subsequent decision or family agreement.

147. Remedy applied in case of Hazara Jagirs. In Hazara the jagirs granted at annexation were made subject to certain limitations of the successions proposed by Major James Abbott. Further jagirs were granted for service in 1857 without any similar reservation. Among the Hazara settlement rules to which legal force was given by Regulation XIII of 1872 were two dealing with assignments of land revenue.

“18. The settlement Officer shall ascertain for each class of revenue assignments granted for more than one life or for the period of settlement or for each of such cases where necessary what rule is best calculated to secure to Government the attainment of the object for which the grant was given. The result of his enquires shall be submitted for the sanction of Government.

 

“19. All cases in which orders of succession contrary to the orders to be laid down under Rule 18 have been passes shall be reported to the Commissioner who is hereby empowered to revise the previous orders in the spirit rule 18, or in such modified way as the peculiar circumstances of such cases may call for.”

 

Under the first of these rules the Lieutenant- Governor passed the following general order :-

“All jagirs and political pensions released for more than one life or for term of settlement shall devolve integrally ordinarily to the eldest son.

“the succession shall not necessarily be maintained in the direct course should the immediate heir be devoid of merit or deficient in the necessary qualifications of character, Influence control over his tribe and family or good disposition towards the British Government. ( Punjab Government No. 1706, dated 22nd December 1873.

In the case of certain jagirs Government reserved the option of dealing with the succession in the above manner, or dividing the jagirs among the male issue of a deceased grantee(For list of these see page 282 of Captain Wace’s Settlement Report of Hazara. . In Hazara, therefore , the matter of succession to jagirs has been put on a thoroughly satisfactory footing.

 

148. Section 8 of Punjab Laws Act, IV of 1872. It was provided by section 8 of the Punjab Laws Act IV of 1872 , that :

“In all cases in which Government has declared any rule of descent to prevail in any family or families of assignees of land revenue such rule of descent shall be held to prevail and to have prevailed amongst them from the time when the declaration was made”.

In 1890 the Government of India refused to make use of this section in connection with a proposal to declare the rule of succession in the Raipur Jagir family in the Ambala District to be primogeniture on the ground that it had no retrospective effect. ( Government of India. No. 4156 dated 8th December 1890. The local Government nevertheless ordered that the rule of primogeniture should be applied on the ground apparently that it had been actually adopted in several successions and it was also probable that such a rule would exist in the case of an ancient Rajput family. Moreover in 1861 the jagridar in possession had executed an agreement providing that the eldest son should inherit the jagir. )

 

149. Attitude of Government of Indiaon question of right to regulate successions. The Government of India have never asserted a right to regulate successions after the conditions of a grant have been laid down in the order of release. But on a few occasions they have decided that the rule of succession in a particular jagir restricts descent to a single heir.

 

150. Primogeniture introduced in case of Ramgarh jagir. In a letter No. 1490, dated 1st April 1859, Lord Canning sanctioned primogeniture as regulating in future the succession of the jagir enjoyed by one branch of the Ramgarh family in Ambala “as this proposal has emanated from the younger sons themselves.” The family is a Rajput one connected with the Raja of Bliaspur.

 

151. Case of the Chachi Jagir. In 1862 the Government of India declined to sanction a deed respecting the devolution of his jagir executed by Sir Nihal Singh, Chachi on the ground that as the Sardar has more than one son Government has no power to fetter or unfetter the Dardar as to his old estates , his power over which must be decided should any dispute arise by the ordinary law applicable to such estates in the Punjab.”

In 1874, however Sir Henry Davies then Lieutenant –Governor of the Punjab declared that as Sir Nihal Singh who had died in 1873, had never revoked the wish expressed in 1862, the law of primogeniture was applicable to the whole jagir which therefore descended to his eldest son. Amrik Singh . These orders were plainly inconsistent with the view taken by the Government of India in 1862. But in 1902 in passing orders upon the succession which had again opened out on the death of Amrik Singh leaving no children the Government of India took the view that “section 8 of the Punjab Descent of Jagirs Act. 1900 relates to declarations in fact issued, irrespective of their authority and that the deliberate employment of the term Government “ which includes a “Local Government has placed the two letters (i.e. Government of India letter No. 1156 dated 11th December 1862. and Punjab Government letter No. 250 dated 29th January 1874)” for the purposes of that particular enactment on the same footing . Having therefore two separate but inconsistent

 

152. Succession of a single heir in case of (a) jagir of Shahzada Jamhur - The jagir of Shahzada Jamhur, Saddozai, in the Kohat district was originally released in favour of the grantee and his male issue in perpetuity.” In 1877, the Government of India agreed to a modification of the terms providing for its devolution on “the heir, being a descendant of the original grantee, whom Government might select.” ( Government of India No. 383-F, dated 27th July 1877.)

 

153. (b) The Makhad Jagir - In the case of Makhad jagir in Rawalpindi where the grant provided for descent to “legitimate male issue, “but the Financial Commissioner held that a quasi- custom of primogeniture had been proved to exist , the Government of India in 1881 sanctioned the succession of the eldest of four sons subject to the condition of fitness. This ruling also applied to the Shakardarra jagir in Kohat held by the same family.

 

154. (c) Jagir of Raja Sir Sahib Dial - In 1882 the Government of India allowed one of Raja Sir Sahibdial’s Jagirs released in 1854 in favour of himself and “his legitimate male issue for two generations” to descend to his grandson, his sons being passed over for reasons stated in the correspondence. (Government of India No. 256, dated 22nd November 1882.

 

155. Proposal of Punjab Government to introduce primogeniture authoritatively - In 1898 the Punjab Government urged on the Government of India the necessity of taking measures to put a stop to the sub-division of jagirs, and the gradual deterioration in consequence of may of the leading families in the province.(Punjab Government No. 261-S dated 16th June 1898.) The history of the question in the Punjab was reviewed and the various orders of the Government of India referred to in the preceding paragraphs were cited. The conclusion drawn was that in the Punjab assignments of land revenue had always been regarded from a standpoint different from that adopted in some other parts of India, and that the principle had been asserted that assignees have ,in virtue of the grant of a share of the revenue of the State, public duties as well as private rights . it was a natural deduction from this that Government had an inherent right to regulate the course of secessions from time to tome as occasion requires and so to maintain the capacity of the Jagridar to do public service . Sir Mackworth Young quoted with approval a dictum of the officiating Financial Commissioner ., Mr. Ogilvie that all assignment are from the essential nature of their tenure held subject to the pleasure of Government unless the contrary be distinctly stated in the deed of grant . It is a great mistake to regard and treat these deeds of grant like the title deeds of an estate the general provision that the grant shall descend to direct heirs male does not debar Government from the exercise of its inherent right to regulate the succession between recognized heirs.” The lieutenant governor therefore proposed to introduce authoritatively by executive order the rule of descent to a single heir in the case of all jagirs of a yearly value of Rs. 250and upwards.

156. Proposal modified by Government of India. This proposal was rejected by the Government of India which held that the end in view could only be reached by legislation and that the consent of the jagirdars in possession was essential to the introduction of primogeniture. In the letter conveying this decision it was remarked that :-

The Governor- General in Council is in entire accord with His Honour the Lieutenant Governor as to the political expediency of preventing the larger jagirs from being parceled our though a recurring process of sub –division . But having given the most careful attention to the subject he is satisfied that the decision come to in 1860 by lord canning that though jagridars might very properly be consent of the head to any family in which it has not hitherto prevailed is correct and should be substantially maintained . That the Government when granting or confirming an assignment of land revenue possess an absolute power of regulating the succession at the time of such grant or confirmation is undoubted. But when once the conditions of a grant have been prescribed and the grant has actually been made this absolute power is lost . This is the well –recognized rule of English law governing grants from the Crown and is founded on principles of equity and common justice. There no doubt exists a distinction in kind between an estate in land an assignment of land revenue. But taking an assignment of land revenue as analogous to a pension. The State by the principles of English law has no inherent right to regulate or vary at its pleasure, after the assignment or the pension has been granted the order of succession in either the one case or the other . Nor is the Governor- General in Council satisfied that if such powers were assumed they would meet with the hearty approval of the jagridars.

“ An examination of the various orders passed between 1850 and 1860 by the governor –General shows that great care was taken to protect decision already given. Thus, in 1851 when a certain rule as to collateral descent was laid down decisions already given in particular cases to a contrary effect were allowed to stand . Again at a later date in the case of the Ramgarh jagir, substitution of succession according to primogeniture for division among the heirs was only sanctioned because the younger sons of the jagirdar themselves applied for it.

“ In paragraph 13 of your letter other instances are cited in which the Government of India have interfered, since Lord Canning’s declarations of policy in 1860, to regulate successions. Examination of these cases shows that there was no real deviation from the policy of 1860. In the first case cited the terms of the grant were revised on the occasion of the amount of the grant being increased and apparently with the assent of the grantee. In the second case the custom of primogeniture was proved to exist in the jagridar’s family. In the third case the terms of the grant were modified with the consent of the original grantee.”

157. Punjab Jagris Act V of 1941. In accordance with the decision of the Punjab Government an Act No. V of 1941 repealing section 8 of the Punjab Lawa Acts , IV of 1872, was passed by the provincial Legislature and received the assent of the Governor of the Punjab. The main provision of the Act is as follows :-

“(7(1) Where Government has heretofore declared or at any time hereafter declares that any rule of descent in respect of succession to any jagir shall prevail in the family of jagirdars, such rule of descent shall be deemed to prevail in the family of jagirdars, such rule of descent shall be deemed to prevail , and to have prevailed from the time when the declaration was made anything in any law or contract to the contrary notwithstanding:

Providing that no such declaration shall here after be made unless and until-

(a) Government is satisfied that the rule of descent to be so declared actually prevails in the family and has been continuously and without breach , or observed in all succession (if any) to the jagir since it was made ; or

(b) The jagirdar or his successor in interest for time being has by written instrument duly executed by him either before or after the passing of this Act, signified on behalf of himself and his family acceptance of the rule of descent to be so declared and either no succession has taken place since such acceptance the jagir has in fact not devolved otherwise than it would have devolved had the said rule of descent been in force.

(2) Any declaration made under sub-section(1) may be amended, varied or rescinded by Government , but always subject to the proviso thereto”.

Where the rule of descent declared to prevail involves the devolution of the assignment of land revenue to a single person as impartible property, it cannot be attached by order of Court (section 11). In declaring the rule of decent Government may attach to it the following conditions:-

(a) that each successor to the jagir shall be approved and accepted as such by government , and

(b) that he shall ,if required by Government , make such provision as Government deem suitable for the maintenance of the widows and other members of the family of the last or any previous holders of the jagir [section 8(a) and (b)].

The Government is bound approving of a successor to accept the nearest their according to the declared rule who is not unfit (proviso to section 8).”

157-A. Principles to be observed in fixing maintenance allowances out of the assignment - The main object of the Punjab Descent of Jagirs Act is to maintain the importance of the family through the principles of primogeniture and impartiality. Grant of allowances should therefore, be permitted to defeat this object. The following principles should be borne in mind when making recommendations:-

(1) Section 8-A (b) of Act IV of 1872 gives to Government the power of enforcing on a succession to a jagir which comes within the scope of the provision , suitable maintenance for the widow or windows (if any ) and other members of the family of any previous holder of the assignment . The direct descendant of any previous holder is included in the term ‘member of the family.’

(2) At the same, Government have full discretion in the matter, and exercise of its powers must depend on the circumstances of each which include inter alia the allowances already in existence. As a general rule, and subject to principle No. (5) below, no allowance should be made to a member of the family who is not in need of it, having due regard to the standard of living which he may be expected to maintain.

(3) No hard and fast rule can be laid down in regard to adults , in particular where previous practice is in their favour.

(4) As a general rule, subject , of course, to exceptions , there should be good reasons for stopping or reducing , on a new succession , allowances already in existence . A ground for reduction, which would however, require careful consideration , might be the fact that a new succession involved additional allowances constituting serious encroachment on the total value of the jagir, if existing ones were maintained at their full amount.

(5) Government would be reluctant to intervene where family arrangements are proposed and are not clearly unsuitable.

 

158. Interpretation of successions to heirs male - An important ruling is contained in Punjab Government letter No. 108, dated 13 December, 1893, determining the interpretation of the conventional expression “Succession to heirs male” when used in the original order conveying sanction to grant. Sir Dennis Fitzpatrick held that “the rule applicable to grant of this sort in the Punjab is that it descends to a single heir, unless a different rule of succession is specially prescribed.”

Several subsequent decisions have been based on this view and the grants notified under section 7(a) of the Punjab Jagirs Act, No. V of 1941” accordingly.

For the purpose of this ruling the term “male issue” may be taken to be the equivalent of “heirs males”.

This ruling applies only to cases which under the general orders of 1859 (see paragraph 140) are inheritable by a single heir.

 

159. Succession of single heirs prescribed in case of small grants for service to be performed - To prevent the splitting up of small grants made in consideration of service to be rendered to village communities, it was ruled in 1865 that small grants given in lieu of service to be performed or responsibilities to be fulfilled should be held from generation to generation by one individual only . * * * * Ordinarily this individual should be the eldest heir of the deceased incumbent, but where special reasons exist for superseding him, it will be within the discretion of the local authorities so to arrange, provided this be in accordance with the wishes of those interest in the service to be rendered.”(Punjab Government No. 414 dated 30th May 1868.)

The occupation of existing holders was not be disturbed but advantage was to be taken of future successions to get rid of the joint enjoyment. (Financial Commissioner Book Circular No. 13 of 1865.)

 

160. Grant of right of adoption to ruling chiefs - In some parts of the Punjab great families are perhaps in more danger of extinction by entire failure of heirs than of degradation by partition of their estates among a numberous progeny. When the current of opinion changed after the mutiny the privilege of adopting an heir in the event of their having no sons was conferred on may ruling Chiefs in the Punjab and elsewhere. In the case of Sikh Chiefs it is hardly possible to represent this as the restoration of a right which ought never to have been denied. Sir Henry Lawrence (Paragraphs 345 and 45 of postscript to Major H. Lawrence’s Report on this summary Settlement of kaithal)and Sir Lapel Griffin(Rajas of the Punjab Pages 225 and 226.) both stated quest of the Phulkain Rajas to be permitted to adopt ion the ground that the concession would be an innovation on the custom which had always prevailed among the Chiefs of the Cis-Sutlej territory.” Rajas of the Punjab Pae 228.)

161. Grants of adoption sanads to selected jagirdars - In 1862 adoption Sanads were conferred on two important jagirdars , Raja Tej Singh and Sardar Shamsher Singh, Sindhawalia who before the annexation of the Punjab had been members of the Lahore Council of Regency. No other Jagirdar enjoyed the right down to the year 1888, when it was given to Sardar Lal Singh , Kailainwala. In connection with Lal Singh’s case Sir Charles Aitchison proposed to the Government of Indian that the right of adoption should be bestowed from time to time on carefully selected jagirdar families. He remarked :-“it would be necessary to make a very careful selection of the jagirdars deemed worthy of the right of adoption . Each case would be weighted on its own merits, and the concession would be allowed as an honour and a reward . In the work of selection regard would be had to the influence, position , history, and services of the family ; to its loyalty and activity in the cause of good government in times of peace; and the reputation of the jagirdars for kindness towards dependents and to the landholders and other living on the jagir. In this way , the Government would always have in its hands a powerful incentive to good and loyal services; and those not granted the concession in the first instance might hope in time to win it by proved deserts . it might further be provided that the privilege should be liable to forfeiture for disloyalty or other misconduct which might be defined.

“It may be asked what would be the advantages of the concession to the public and private but of such a nature that the Government , acting in the public interests, could fairly take them into view? It is well known that the grant of adoption sanads to Chiefs has not operated to increase the number of adoptions, but to allay disquietude of mind. Many cases that have come before the Lieutenant- Governor have convinced him that the practice of declining to consider grants till the death of grantees gives the grantees much unnecessary anxiety in their decline in years. It is natural and laudable on the part of heads of families to desire before they die to know that heir houses will survive them and their relations will be provided for. The lieutenant – Governor knows that much anxiety prevails in this matter which it is within our power to remove and one measure which would tend to set these painful uncertainties at rest would be the grant of adoption sanads to selected jagirdars holding in perpetuity.

“ It may be admitted, however that the purely public advances would be much more important . The measure in contemplation would give great political strength to the Government. In the Punjab in particular the boon would be a proper recognition of the loyal and faithful services , in peace and war of the most prominent men in the British territories of this part of India – Services rendered in most cases with unswerving zeal and praiseworthy alacrity for more than a generation. The men who have thus served us are the men who stood by us in the storm of the Mutiny; and we know by the heartfelt offers made during the Afghan War and later at the time of the Panjdeh incident, that the spirit which animated them and their fathers thirty years ago still lives. We desire its perpetuation; we desire that the families who have aided us in the difficult task of continuous administration and have proved themselves our friends in time of need shall not diew out of the land. We need leaders of the people and times may come again in which the diminution of that class would be felt as a serious public calamity. The measure proposed would tend directly to the attainment of these objects and would invigorate and cheer the performance of those duties of which it was there ward and or the continued performance of which it would be a security” (Punjab Government No. 224 , ½ dated 3rd March 1887).

 

The Government of India accepted the views put forward by the Lieutenant- Governor, but considered that the objects aimed at would “be best attained by selecting from time to time in individual cases the jagridars to whom it is proposed to give the privilege of adoption.”

 

162. Grants of adoption sanads - This opinion, however has since been reconsidered . it was represented that the grant of merely personal sanads of adoption went but a little way towards furthering the policy of the Punjab Government in regard to the maintenance of their jagirdars as source of real political strength . It was urged that the need for men of good family who have influence in the country and are ready to use it on our side certainly had not diminished in the yards which and elapsed since Sir Charles Aitchison put forward his views in the official pronouncement quoted above : that on this ground alone it was to our interest to preserve the old families whose influence was naturally greater than that of new grantees could be ; and that, this being admitted, it was on the assumption that suitable adoptions could be made a matter of no consequence to us whether the successor was an adopted son or a son of the body.

“We have in fact an aristocracy of high traditions, and sentiment apart, we ought to uphold it in our own interests…… We wish to preserve the families of our great jagirdars in order that they may be useful to us : that they may help us in ordinary times in the suppression of crime and support us with their own strength in the country in times of trouble….. What they want and may well have, if I rightly apprehend the policy is an assurance that Government does not desire the lapse of their Jagirs. The present concession rather suggests that Government is not prepared to forego the fiscal gain of occasional lapses.

”(Extract from a note by Hon’ble Mr. C.L. Tupper, C.S.I. Financial Commissioner dated 9th December 1900, forwarded to the Government of India with Punjab Government letter No. 17, dated 26th February 1901.These arguments were supported by the Government of India and accepted by His Majesty’s Secretary of State, the rules(Financial Commissioner’s circular No . 4951, dated 22nd September 1902.

(1) The privilege contained in the grant of an adoption sanad shall be an heritable one.

(2) Such a Sanad shall only be granted to jagirdars who are found specially worthy of the honour, and they shall be selected with reference to their possession of the qualifications already laid down as necessary by Sir Charles Aitchison in the passage already quoted in paragraph 160 above.

(3) Its grant shall be subject to the following conditions: (a) The acceptance by the jagirdar of the maintenance conditions specified in section 88 of the Punjab Jagirs Act, No V of 1941 and (b) the sanctions of the Government of India.

(4) An improper or unsuitable adoption may be vetoed by the Local Government.

(5) The succession shall be regulated by a rule of integral descent to a signal heir usually the rule of primogeniture.

 

163. Use of adoption sanad in connection with Descent of Jagirs Act.- It will thus be seen that the grant of an adoption sanad while conferring a valuable privilege upon the grantee is also useful as furthering the policy enunciated in the Punjab Jairs Act, No. V of 1941 limiting succession to a single heir and of preventing the minute sub-division of jagirs with its consequent loss of prestige and influence to the Jagirdar.

 

164. Perpetual Jagris declared inalienable - Unless assignments of land revenue are incapable of transfer by the grantees and of attachment by order of Court their public uses may easily be destroyed . In 1852 the Government of India ordered the insertion in sanads relating to perpetual grants of a clause prohibiting allegation. (Government of India No. 2990, dated 27th August 1852. The letter refers to jagirs in the Punjab north and west of the Sutlej.) It will be remembered that one of the subsidiary succession rules sanctioned 1853 in the case of the Cis- Sutlej jagirs declared that (past alienation’s whether to relations or strangers should not be officially recognized or recorded.(See paragraph III) In 1857 Lord Canning sanctioned a proposal that each successor to a Cis-Sutlej perpetual jagir should receive it unencubered by any liability for the debts of his predecessor if he refrained from appropriating any of his real and personal estate apart from the Jagir. (Government of India No. 109 , dated 9th January 1857. The additional rule which allowed the heir, while repudiating the debts toredeem the family mansion and the jagir land held in proprietary right (Financial Commissioner’s circular No. 65 of 1857) Could not now be legally enforced.)This order was declared applicable to all perpetual jagir in the Punjab by Financial Commissioner’s circular No.8, dated 3rd February 1857. The court of Directions to whom the order was communicated expressed surprise that it should have been thought necessary to issue it, and remarked–

“We should have supposed that there could be no necessity for notifying this as a rule since it follows from the very nature of a jagir, which cannot be alienated and can only beattached for the life of the holder”. (Dispatch, Political Department No,51 dated 30th August 1858, quoted in Financial Commissioner’s Book Circular No. XXXVII of 1858.)

 

165. Mr. Cust’s Revenue Manual declares all jagirs and mafis to be inalienable- Probably the Directions only referred to grants for more than one life. But in his consolidated circular on “Jagirdars and M’afidars” issued in 1860 and again in his revenue Manual published in 1866, the Financial Commissioner, Mr. Cust wrote –

It is scarcely necessary to remark that the jagirdar or m’afidar has no power of sale mortgage , gift or sub-lease of his revenue assignment , except under special circumstances which must be proved. Contracts of this kind will not be recognized by the revenue Courts, and the parties in possession on those pleas will be considered only the private agents of the holders with no legal rights.”(Cust’s Revenue Manual , Page 15)

 

166. Assignment may be treated as inalienable except in Delhi territory - It is to be regretted that no distinct legal provision exists declaring assignments even for a term inalienable . Section 12 Act XXIII of 1871 (an Act to consolidate and amed the lay relating to pensions and grants by Government of money or land revenue) refers only to pensions , and in the preamble to the act a distinction is drawn between pensions, and grants of land revenue. There are , however, judicial decisions to the effect that a pensions may take from of a land revenue assignment. Be that as it may it is clear that under sections 4 to 6 of the Act no. Civil Court can take cognizance of any claim to a grant of land revenue based on an alleged transfer unless the collector gives a certificate permitting it to do so. In deciding whether to issue such a certificate and in his action generally with respect to assignments a revenue officer is as a rule fully justified in treating private transfers of the right to receive a share of the revenue due to the State as a breach of the conditions of the grant. In the case of m’afis for the support of institutions it is obvious that if the manager mortgages the income on account of his private debts, the conditions are broken. Unless arrangements can be made for the speedy removal of the encumbrance the remedy lies in resumption or in suspension of payment tile the persons interested in the institution can arrange for the appointment of a new manager, who would feel himself under no obligation to continue the diversion of the endowment from its proper uses. Probably this would hold good as regards grants for the maintenance of institutions even in the Delhi territory, though assignments in that part of the praline are ordinarily transferable(paragraph 130).

 

167. Early authorities declare assignments to be capable of attachment. The law regarding the attachment of assignments by decree of court is in a somewhat doubtful state. In the dispatch quoted in paragraph 164 the Court of Directions wrote that Jagirs can only be attached for the life of the holder “ Mr. Cust remarked: -

Jagir and m’afi holding are liable to attachment under decree of the civil and Revenue Courts . The revenue will be collected by the tahsildar and paid to the parties holding the decrees . With the death of the life holder all claim of the creditor expires. Grants to institutions are not liable for the personal debts of the manager. ( Cust’s Revenue Manual , Page 15)

This practically assumes that assignments are private property in which the existing holders have life interests. It ignores the view that the possession of them involves public duties.

 

168. Doubtful state of the law. Section 11 of Act XXIII of 1871 provides that “no pension granted or continued by Government on political considerations, or on account of past services, or as a compassionate allowance shall be liable to …..attachment….. in satisfaction of a decree or order of any…. Court. Political pensions are exempted from attachment by section 266(g) of the Civil Procedure Code. In one case (C.R. 137 P.R.,1890) the Chief Court of the Punjab held that, though a grant of land revenue may be and no doubt often is a distinct thing from a pension, there is no reason why a pension should not take as the mode of payment , the form of an assignment of land revenue. In a latter case (C.R. No. 47 P.R.:of 1893) the former Punjab rulings on the subject were considered and the law summed up as follows:-

“These cases are sufficient to show that while some jagir income may be liable to attachment, other jagir income may not.”

 

169. Duties of Collector in connection with attachment of assignments. Assigned revenue is an “interest in land” and an order or its attachment made by any Civil or Criminal Court must be addressed to the Collector.(Section 141, Act XVII of 1887) and must direct the person by whom the revenue is payable to pay it to the Collector and the Collector to hold it subject to the further orders of the Court."”(Section 142 Act XVII of 1887) IN execution proceedings the Collectors is the agent of the Court and must obey its order without demur. But after the attachment has been made , he would be justified in pointing out to the Court any reasons why in his opinion it should be withdrawn . It is for the Court to decide whether the reasons are valid. If the matter were properly represented, it seems probable that a Civil Court would hold that revenue granted for the support of an institution should not be attached in execution of a decree on account . of the private debts of the manager.

 

170. Provisions of section 8(3) of Punjab Act, IV of 1900. In 1898 the Punjab Government proposed the amendment of section 11 of Act XXIII of 1871 so as to protect all assignments of land revenue from attachment. ( Punjab Government No. 86, dated 24th August 1989.) The government of India held that it would be enough to exempt those jagirs only in respect of which primogeniture has been, or shall be, declared to be the rule of descent. (Government of India No. 341-A 277.2, dated 9th February 1899.

 

171. Questions regarding successions. Questions of succession do not as a rule cause much trouble . The terms of truant usually indicate clearly who the successor or successors must be.

 

172. Registration of heirs to jagirs. Every shareholder in a Cis-Sutlej Jagir is required to report the birth of a sons within a week of its occurrence in order that the necessary entry may be made in the genealogical tree. No Investigation , public or private, should be instituted into the truth of the relationship of the child to his reputed father, when there are kinsmen in the line of succession to the jagir unless they have moved in the matter in their own interest . If there are no such kinsmen it may become necessary to make some private enquiry , but only if rumours of fraud have reached the ears of the collector. If private enquiry seems needful, the Collector must obtain the sanction of the Commissioner before making it, and report the result for orders. Alleged posthumous births will usually require verification , especially if the Collector has received no notice that the widow declares herself to be pregnant. Such declarations are often not to be trusted and enquiry to be effectual must be made before the birth takes place or is , according to the widow’s statement, due . In such access it may be advisable with the Commissioner’s sanction to arrangement due. In such cases it may be advisable with the Commissioner’s sanction to arrange if possible , for the service of a competent lady doctor for the personal examination of the widow.

173. Succession to small grants for service. The rule limiting the succession to a single heir in the case of small grants for service to be performed has already been noticed (paragraph 159).

 

174. Succession to small grants assigned to several persons for their lives- When the revenue of a plot has been assigned to two or more individual’s collectively without specifying that the share of each shall lapse on his death of the last of them the whole will lapse. This rule only refers to petty grants.(Punjab Government notification No. 1386 dated 27th October 1873.)

 

175. Successions to grants for religious institutions. The cases of succession which cause most difficulty are those relating to endowments for the support of religious institutions . Unfortunately the death of the head of a monastery or of the guardian of a tomb or shrine is often followed by a dispute among his disciples as to who shall occupy the vacant seat. It is no part of Collector’s duty to settle such matters. It is the policy of Government , as laid down in Act XX of 1863, to abstain from interference in the management of religious institutions and five years before that Act was passed the same principle was clearly stated in Chief Commissioner’s Circular No. 23 dated 25th August , 1858. If the succession is contested the Collector should either pay the revenue to the claimant who is actually in possession , or suspend payment altogether till the dispute is settled. He should adopt the latter course when litigation is protracted and it is clear that funds intended for religious or charitable purpose are being diverted into the pockets of lawyers.

 

176. Resumption for breach of conditions. An assignment may be resumed when the conditions attached to it are broken. These condition s may be either expressed or implied.

 

177. Breach in case of assignments for support of religious institutions. Fishing inquiries as to the disposal of the income of grants made for the support of religious or charitable institutions are unwise. But if the building is falling into ruins or has been deserted, or if the endowment is clearly being misapplied, interference is necessary. It is equally so if the guardian notoriously a man of bad character, and complaints reach the Collector’s ears that a house of prayer has become a den of thieves or gamblers, or that respectable women can no longer visit it for purposes of worship. A time can set within which the persons interest in the institution must arrange for the repair of the building or the remedy of the abuses, which have infected its management failing which resumption will be proposed.

 

178. The condition of loyalty and good conduct - Many grants are by their terms expressly conditional on loyalty and good conduct. The form of a sanad sanctioned for perpetual assignments in 1870 declares that the grant is held on the above conditions during the pleasure of Government. This as an expression of the policy of Government announced to the grantees when they received their sanads is important. But in deciding what the terms of old grants are it is necessary to look to the original order of release rather than to the wording of a general form of sand prescribed many years later.

 

179. Every assignment really liable to forfeiture for flagrant misconduct - But whether the original grant stipulates for good conduct on the part of the grantee or not, Government is justified in holding that there is a point in the case of every assignment at which the misbehavior of the assignee will justify an order of forfeiture. What that point is must depend largely on the history of the grant . Considering the origin , for example of may of the jagirs in the Cis-Sutlej and Delhi territories it would be wrong to mete out the same measure to them as to assignments which have sprung simply from the bounty of the British Government.

 

180. Assignment forfeited if grantee is guilty of treason’s or of a capital offence. The title of any person to hold or to inherit a jagir or a share in a jagir is forfeited when he is convicted of a crime involving a death sentence. If he is in possession , the jagir will lapse entirely . If his interest in the jagir is contingent, it will cease as regards himself, but survive as regards his children or other heirs. The Government of India ruled in 1856 that the share which the criminal would in ordinary course have inherited should be confiscated entirely when the jagirdar whose heir he was died.(Government of India No. 4170, dated 8th August 1856) but the court of Directions refused to accept a ruling which involved the doctrine of corruption of blood”

They remarked: -

“Forfeiture of the whole property of a convicted felon is one of the punishment prescribed by law, and for this there may be sufficient reasons, no with standing the hardship which results to his innocent offspring. But in the present case you have pronounced a prospective confiscation of landed rights which have never vested in the offenders, but which would have legally descended to them on the death of their father who still survives, thus adopting the principle of corruption of blood, own to the ancient law or this country, but long stigmatized by the best authorities and condemned by the opinion of the present age. We cannot sanction this principle and we direct that the children of Nihal succeed to their father’s share on the death of their grandfather in the same manner as if their father had died in the course of nature.”

 

(Dispatch No. 44m dated 18th August 1858.)

A grant is also forfeited by the commissioner of any act of treason or disloyalty. (Financial Commissioner’s Book Circular No, L III of 1860.)

 

181. Ruling of Punjab Government in 1883. In 1883 the cases of two shares in trans-Sutlej conquest jagirs, who had been convicted respectively of attempted burglary and of receiving stolen property were brought to the notice of Government. It was then ruled that “When the deed of grant contains nothing which reserves to government the power that “When the deed of grant contains nothing which reserves to Government the power of resumption (perpetual ) grants …..can only become liable to forfeiture for treason or when the holder commits an offence for which under the ordinary law the court could pass a sentence of forfeiture of all the property of the offender.” (Punjab Government No.194, dated 23rd April 1883.)

 

182. Later attitude of Punjab Government - It is very doubtful whether this doctrine which treats a right to a share of revenue due to the State as standing on the same footing as private property, would now be accepted . It is inconsistent with the view of the nature of assignments in the Punjab which was put before the government of India in 1898. ( See paragraph 155.)In a recent case belonging to he Peshawar district a perpetuity jagir was, on the death of he holder converted with the sanction of the Government of India into the perpetual cash pension of much smaller amount because of the failure of the deceased jagirdar to show active loyalty or to treat the local representatives of government with proper respect. In recommending this action Sir Mack worth young remarked that he supported it” not so much because the grant was originally one of Rs. 1000 and was increased subject to government service as well as good conduct, though this might …… perhaps be argued, but on the broad ground that every assignment of land revenue is held on the understanding that the assignee maintains a loyal attitude towards the government and failing this is liable to have his grant confiscated.” (Punjab Government No. 506 dated 30th July 1901)” A few years ago a jagridar belonging to one of the leading families in the Punjab was warned that “Jagirs are granted for public objects and that with respect to the condition attached to his grant circumstances might arise in which Government might be compelled reluctantly to resume it.” (Punjab Government No. 949-S, dated 25th August 1898.) In that case the sanad stated that the grant was conditional on good conduct and loyal service.

183. Lapses in favour of Jagridars - In some cases the benefit of a lapse accrues to a jagirdar and not to Government. The circumstances under which this takes place are described in paragraph 23-25 of financial commissioner’s Standing Order No. 7.

 

184. Settlement made in some cases with ex-mafidars or their heirs. When an assignment lapses the person entered in there cord of rights as landowner usually becomes responsible for the payment of the land revenue to Government. In technical phrase “ the settlement is made with him” But it may be found that the connection of the late mafidar with the land really amounted to a proprietary or sub-proprietary or sub-proprietary tenure and in that case he or his heirs is entitled to claim the settlement. This subject, which in practice is somewhat difficult one, is dealt with a paragraphs 182-185 of the Settlement Manual.

 

185. Treatment of assignments at settlement - When a general re-assessment of district takes place it is the business of the Settlement Officer to examine and attest all existing assignments of land revenue. Some remarks on the subject will be found in paragraphs 568-575 of the Settlement Manual.

 

186. Duties of Collector in connection with assignments. The main duties of the collector of a district in connection with revenue-free grants are: -

(1) as regards term –expired grants to see that laps are enforced without delay or a recommendation made for a reconsideration of the original order should resumption appear undesirable;

(2) as regards other assignments-

(a) on the death ofthe existing holder to pass order promptly about the succession

(b) to satisfy himself that the conditions of the substantially fulfilled by the assignee.

The discretion of the Collector to resume of his own authority assignments of which the term has expired is not unfettered. In a few cases he has been forbidden to do so and as regards other lines of policy have been laid down to which the must conform. These duties are discharged by the Collector even when the district is under settlement ; but all cases should be reported to him for orders by the settlement Officer, to whom also the orders should be communicated in order that proper effect may be given to them in the records, and that Settlement Officer may be able to carry out the duty imposed on him by paragraphs 568 et seq. Of the Settlement Manual.

 

187. Grants for service in 1843 and during the Mutiny. Grants on account of services rendered in 1848 or during the mutiny originally made for a term may not be resumed without reference to the Financial Commissioner.(Punjab Government Nos. 104 dated 30th August 1889 and 141 dated 6th December 1889) there are strong reasons for showing liberality in such cases , which are well explained in the following remarks by Sir James Lyall”(Punjab Government No. 192-S dated 6th July 1889)

“4. In certain cases which came before him as Financial Commissioner Sir James Lyall recorded an opinion that it was good policy to maintain in perpetuity grans for services rendered at the mutiny on the ground that such grants remain as evidence of the result of loyalty and have a considerable political effect. To these views Sir James Lyall still adhere and is strongly of opinion that in the case of the small jagir or m’afi grants , which were made to the best of the Sikh and Punjabi Muhammadan native Officers in 1859 and 1860 in recognition of their having obeyed our call and joined our standard at a critical time and distinguished themselves as soldiers, it would generally be good policy and well worth the money to continued to show itself loyal and well disposed and ready to do service. The money value of these grants is small , but the value put on them is great as in this country of peasant proprietors they give the family which holds them a high social status in the eyes of the rural population ,and mark it out for recognition by the Officers of Government.

 

It is these land holding families better off though they be than the mass of peasantry, but still only what may be termed yeomen proprietors, which furnish the men who are the flower of the present cavalry and infantry of the Indian Army and who make the best Native Officers, They have some ancestral military traditions and feelings of gentility and also a certain small amount of capital. They serve more for the love of the thing than for profit and eventually retire and live on their lands. It is in Sir James Lyall’s opinion a great object to keep alive the spirit which induces men of this class to servein our Army, and which might die out any day. The continuance of small grants in their villages to the heirs of the men who joined our standard in 1857 and then much distinguished themselves will be one way of keeping alive this sprit and of encouraging future generations to follow the example if similar critical times ever occur again.”

 

188. Bedi and sodhi grants - One of the rules prescribed by Lord Hardinge and Lord Dalhousie provided for the re-consideration on the death of the holders of assignments conferred for service of any kind to be rendered to Sikh rulers, including grants of Bedis and Sodhis which were originally confirmed only for the service of any kind to be rendered to Sikh rulers, including grants to Bedis and Sodhi’s, which were originally confirmed only for the lives of the incumbents. This instruction was reproduced in the rules under the first Punjab Land Revenue Act, XXXIII of 1871. Definite directions have since been given for heresumption of Bedi and Sodhi revenue – free grants on the deaths of existing holders and grant of cash pensions to their male descendants, windows and daughters. These directions make the following rules, which were originally drawn up for the case of deceased Bedi and Sodhi pensioners. Applicable also to the cases of deceased holders of revenue free grants who are members of those two clans. In applying the rules in the first instance on the decease of such free grant holders the words “pensioner” and “pension” are to be treated , where necessary as including the deceased holder or a revenue –free grant and the amount of that grant, respectively . Except as so applied to such deceased or to his grant, the words must be interpreted in their strictly literal sense . Thus the heirs of a deceased revenue – free grant holder are pensioners in the strict sense of the word and their heirs after them. The pensions go on diminishing generation by generation till they lapse by commutation or by death or by marriage.

The directions also lay down that Collectors can dispose of these cases in accordance with the rules without reference to higher authorities.(Punjab Government Nos. 197 dated 5th December 1884 and 87 dated 4th July , 1889 and Punjab Government letter No. 5 (revenue) dated 8th January 1914.)

“(1) On the death of any male pensioner one –half of his pension will be continued to his direct male heirs, and divided among them according to the ordinary custom of inheritance; provided that all pensions of not more than Rs. 50 per annum climbable under this rule shall be compulsorily commuted at the ordinary rates.

“(2) On the death of any male pensioner, one half of his pension will be continued to his window (if any) or (if there are several widows) divided among his widows in equal shares ; provided that , if the deceased pensioner leaves motherless and unmarried daughter or daughters, the share of his pension to be allotted to his widows or widow shall be calculated as if the mother or mother’s of such daughters or daughters were alive.

“(3) On the death of any male pensioner, other than the head of the house for the time being , leaving motherless and unmarried daughters , the said daughters of each mother shall receive in equal shares one-half of the pension to which their mother would have been entitled under rule-2, in case she had survived her husband.

“(4) On the death of any widow in receipt of a pension under rule 2, one-half of such pension shall be continued to her unmarried daughters (if any) upon equal shares.

(“5) Pensions to widows under rule 2 are life pensions . Pensions of daughters under rule 3 and 4 cease upon death or marriage of the pensioners; but when they cease for the latter reason the pensioners are eligible or dowries under the ordinary rules.

(“6) All pensions are held during the pleasure of Government and subject to the usual conditions of good behavior , loyalty and service. The local Government may refuse to grant any pension climbable under these rules, if the claimant appears to be an unfit recipient of Government bounty.”

 

189. Pensions of Anadpur Sodhis. These rules are applicable to the pensions of the well-known Sodhi family of Anadpur, in Hoshiarpur , for which indeed they were originally framed. (Government of India, Foreign Department No. 1992-G dated 16th October 1884.) But the head of that family for the time being is in each generation entitled to receive a cash pension of Rs. 2400 a year. Hence in applying in rules to the Anadpur Sodhis they must be read with certain additions, “other” being inserted before “male pensioners” in rule I and “other than the head of the house for the time being” after “male pensioner” in rule 2.

 

190. Powers of collections with reference to Bedi and Sodhi grants. Collections will accordingly be able to dispose on their own authority of all cases of lapsing Bedi and Sodhi pensions and jagirs and mafis, only reporting for order of higher authority cases in which they consider that pensions should be refused or that more liberal pensions should be allowed, or in which for special reasons they think that a lapsing grant in the form of a jagir or mafi should be continued in that form. Cases in which more liberal pensions than the rules allow can properly be recommended will be extremely rare. But it is probable that some cases will occur in which it may be advisable to propose continuance, in its original form of a lapsing life tenure Sodhi or Bedi jagir or mafi grant. Such a proposal should not however be made unless the release of the grant can be recommended for some term other than life, such as during the pleasure of Government, in the case of a very ancient grant held by a family of some distinction, or during maintenance of a religious or charitable building or institution , or a roadside garden where such building or garden is found to exist in connection with the grant and to be worthy of support. (For further instructions see paragraph 8 of Financial Commissioner’s Standing order No. 7).

191.Policy of Government with reference to grants in favour of religious and charitable institutions. It has always been the policy of Government to be especially liberal in maintaining the grants made by native rulers for the support of religious and charitable institutions. The orders of Lord Hardinge and Lord Dalhousie on the subject are given in paragraph 86 and 93, and the rule in force in the Delhi territory is noted in paragraph 132(d). Orders issued in 1860 required district officers to regrain from resuming life grants in favour of a mosque or temple, if the institution was valued by the people and resumption was likely to prove distasteful to them. Such cases were to be reported for orders . The same course was to be followed as regards life grants for the support of dharamsalas, takiyas or khankahs, if resumption would cause “serious dissatisfaction”.

These injunction were repeated in more general form in the rules under the Land Revenue Act, XXXIII of 1871, and in 1881 Settlement Officers were told that grants to religious institutions released originally for the term of the first regular settlement should be continued for that the revised settlement , if there were no new or special reasons to the country. ( Punjab Government No. 447 dated 13 april 1881, and Financial Commissioner’s circular No. 251 of 1st August 1881. The same policy is embodied in the more detail in the more detailed instructions drawn up by Mr. Lyall as Financial commissioner in 1883 quoted below. These related in the first instance to the treatment of land- revenue assignments in the Una tahsil of Hoshiarpur which was under settlement, but they were reproduced in a circular of the Settlement Commissioner.

 

192.Instructions issued by Mr. Lyall in 1883. The principles laid down by Mr. Lyall were as follows:-

(i)             Where the grant is attached to a dharmsala or takiya which still exists, and is served in the same fashion as at least settlement, the grant should be maintained subjected to revision by Deputy Commissioner on the death of present holders, notwithstanding that the building may be only kacha, and that the grant in value or area may be very petty and may have originally been granted by the villagers only.

(ii)           Where the grant is attached to a thakurdwara, shiwala or khankah consisting of a mosque or tomb containing a chapel for prayers it should be maintained for another term of settlement, if the building be a real religious edifice still kept up as place of worship, whether in the same village or district or not.

(iii)          If the thakurdwara to which the grant is attached is merely the residence of a Brahmin with a Thakur in some room of it, it should generally be resumed if the grantee of last settlement is dead and the present holder is not a fit object of charity.

(iv)          Where the grant is not supposed to be attached to any building which worshipers can enter, but to small erections of the nature of Muhammadan graves, Hindu cenotaphs , Sarwar Sultan makans, platforms of pirs or devis, & c., the grant should generally be resumed.

(v)           Where the grant was given by the villagers to Brahmins for service as pandit , pandha , parohit, or acharaj, or to artisans and amins for village service it should be resumed or at most be only continued for life to old men or women out of charity.

(vi)          If such a grant as that last described was made by a Raja or ruler to a respectable family of Brahmin parohits as a subsistence grant, it may be maintained for another term of settlement, if the family is still respected and engaged in religious offices.

(vii)        If the grant was made either by a ruler or by the villagers to men for keeping a school or for supplying water on a public road to travelers, it should be treated as a grant for public rather than for village service, and should be maintained, unless it appears that the original purpose is not fulfilled.”

 

Where grants were resumed the villagers we to be given an opportunity of excluding the land from assessment in distributing the revenue of the estate over holding.

 

193.Proposal to adopt a less liberal policy as regards petty village mafis. In 1886 the Financial Commissioner represented that these instructions were too liberal as regards “petty village muafis”. They wished to draw a broad distinction between institutions, which benefited only the village in which they were situated and those, which were places of general, resort. The proposed to resume assignments in favour of the former so far as Government was concerned, leaving it to the landowners to continue them, if they pleased, as grants from themselves in the way described above. They therefore, drafted a circular on “petty village muafis, of which the second paragraph may be quoted:-

“In general such grants when made for the term of settlement or for some period not precisely defined (but not for a life or lives) should be resumed from the date of the introduction of a new assessment except in cases in which some distinctly public convenience is secured by their existence. Thus grants to the more important takiyas and dharamsalas which are situated on roads frequently used by travelers would in most cases be maintained. The same remarks apply to all schools which are fairly well managed, even though their pupils may be drawn from single villages. But grants attached to Muhammadan graves, Hindu cenotaphs, makans of Sarwar sultan, platforms of pirs and devis and other similar objects are useless so far as the public good is concerned and should as a general rule be withdrawn. Similarly grants made to village priests or religious teachers, or to village menials and artisans should not be continued, nor should grants to mosques and temples, which are not places of general resort. In fine, the principle to be borne in mind is the grants in connections with purposes of general public utility, whether material social or moral should be maintained but grants in connection with purposes which are either useless or benefit individual villages only should be resumed the former recipients being left to the beneficence of those interest in the performance of their functions.

 

194.Rejection of proposal by Mr. Lyall. 195. Mr. Lyall who was now Lieutenant Governor objected strongly to the change of policy suggested and refused to sanction the draft circular in which it was explained. He remarked(Punjab Government No. 70, dated 20th July 1887)

“His Honor sees no reason for any change of policy and considers a change in the direction of less liberality very inexpedient. Any change now-a-days should be in the opposite direction, as the work reducing the inordinate amount of revenue assignments in the province has been accomplished and the amount left is not very great. Mr. Lyall thinks that Settlement Officers and Deputy Commissioners are apt to be influenced somewhat unduly towards the resumption of petty grants because they give trouble and because they are, so to speak, anomalies and awkward exceptions from general revenue rules. But we ought not be led to adopt a severe and unpopular line of policy by such considerations. It is well known that m’afis are valued much beyond their worth by the people , and sympathy with this feeling should be shown when the money value involved is not serious.

“The general principle stated in paragraph 2 of the draft circular that petty village m’afis should as a rule be resumed from the date of introduction of new assessment, except in case in which some distinct public convenience is secured by their existence, appears to His honour to be wrong in itself, a departure from past practice, and politically very in expedient; and Mr. Lyall thinks that the proposal to extend this principle to grants made to village priests and religious teachers, or to village menials and artisans, and to mosques and temples which are not places of general resort, is far too sweeping . The rule given in paragraph 34 of appendix III to Barkley’s Directions to Settlement Officers, page 38 is still substantially in force as indicating the right policy that is to say it is expedient that all endowments bona fide made for the maintenance of religious establishments or buildings are kept up, provided that when such grants are of great value they should be restricted to such smaller amounts as it may be thought politically expedient to grant. Where the terms of the original orders were release during maintenance or during the pleasure of Government “ The settlement Officer or Deputy Commissioner can only propose an alteration if he finds the establishments or buildings not kept up for their original purposes. When however, the original order was for release for the term of settlement, the case is different. Such cases are provided for by paragraph 2 of this office letter No. 447, dated 13th April 1881, published with Financial Commissioner’s circular No. S.IX/25-S of 1st August, 1881.

“in the case of all grants for life or lives, except Bedi and Sodhi grants, the Deputy Commissioner or Settlement Officer can resume in the ordinary course in accordance with the original terms of release. But the case of grants for the term of settlement is peculiar as the meaning of these orders was not that the grants should be resumed at the end of the term of settlement , but merely that they might be reconsidered at the end of that term , and the intention was no doubt that expressed in paragraph 2 of the letter of the Punjab Government above referred to viz, that in default of special reasons or new orders such grants would ordinarily be continued if no material change in character had occurred.

“As regards resumption of life m’afis on lapse, no new orders are necessary in the case of purely personal grants, which do not purport to benefit other persons than the holders; but it is advisable that the Settlement Officer should take the opportunity of the settlement to review the case of all life m’afis which appear to have been granted in return for service of any kind to the public or to the people of the village, or to be connected with any institution such as a school, temple , mosque dharamsala , or takiya. The original orders sanctioning for life only were very hurriedly made ,and in many cases were treated differently in different districts; in some the release was ordinarily allowed for life of the holder ; in other s for the term of settlement . Hence it has been the practice to permit and encourage reconsideration’s in such cases on lapse. But this is very troublesome and inconvenient and tends to very unequal treatment. Hence it is advisable that the Settlement Officer should generally review such cases, whether lapse had occurred or not and if he thinks the grant should be continued for a longer term that the life of the incumbent, he should enter the case in a register for report, and should generally propose to release for the term of settlement as that is safest and allows reconsideration’s.

“In respect to purely village service or village institution m’afis, of which the sanctioned term is for the period of settlement or for life, the Settlement Officer should be empowered in the case of petty grants of not more than 3 acres in extent to practically resume at settlement , so far as Government is concerned (without , however , actual imposing any assessment or bringing the land into calculation in fixing the jama of the village) by recording orders in the m’afimisl and the fard lakhiraj that the grant shall be struck off the fard lakhiraj and the registers, and the land be included at the bachh in the maiguizari area, with permission, however , to the azmindars if the majority so wish to exclude the land from the bachh during their pleasure . In such cases, if the zamindars decide to exclude the fact will be noted in the bachh rubkar and the land will be held revenue free from the azmindars only but as far as Government is concerned , will be considered as khalsa. The adoption of this procedure will place a number of these petty grants in their proper position of grants held from the zamindars . They were originally allowed by the Government at the request of the zamindars but by granting them independently of the zamindars wishes and authority we have altered their character in an undesirable way , the exclusions of the grants from there gestures will save much trouble at a very slight loss to Government , which loss will only be for the term of the settlement. But this procedure should not be followed where there are clearly no grounds for continued. In life tenure m’afis of this kind, where the term has not yet lapsed, the case cannot , of course be so treated , but the order may be passed that at the death of the holder the m’afi will be assessed and the revenue will go to the village malba.”

 

195.Special treatment of village grants of an annual value not exceeding Rs. 20. The special treatment sanctioned for village m’afis of not more than three acres really met the wishes of the Financial Commissioners to a large extent, for may of the grants with which their circular dealt were very petty, the limit has since been raised from “three acres “ to “an annual value of Rs. 20 must be extremely small.

196.Existing orders as to small village grants . the orders of Sir James Lyall quoted in paragraph 194 had later been interpreted by Government as involving a distinction between (a) m’afis for the maintenance of “religious establishments or buildings for public accommodation” and (b) m’afis of the annual value of Rs. 20 or less for the maintenance or other institutions or for village services, and the collector’s power to enforce the lapse of term-expired grants of the former class had been withdrawn. A decisions whether an establishment is really religious or not will often be facilitated by application of the principles contained in sections (ii), (iii) and iv of paragraph All grants of class (a) should on expiry of the term of release be reported for the orders of the Financial Commissioner. If the establishment or building concerned is properly maintained , the m’afi should usually be recommended for continuation for another term of settlement under paragraph 51 of standing Order No. 7 If it is proposed to enforce the lapse of the assignment the grounds for resuming e.g., failure to maintain the establishment or building should be reported and the orders of the Financial Commissioner obtained. In case of grants of class (b) the existing order are :-

 

“The Settlement Officer is empowered to adopt either of three courses ;-

(1)  In the case of unexpired life m’afis he may either record that on expiry they should be resumed and assessed in the ordinary way or he may report them to Financial Commissioner for sanction to maintain them for the term of the new settlement , should that be longer than the life term already sanctioned;

(2)  In the case of m’afis for term of settlement only , he may either resume and assess in the ordinary way; or

(3)  He may resume as a grant from government but leave the land assessed for one period of settlement in order to see whether the zamindars will agree to continue the m’afis as a grant from themselves by kharij parta arrangement.

 

In the letter case orders will be recored in the m’afi misl and the fard lakhiraj that the grant shall be struck off the fard lakhiraj and there glisters and the land be included at the bachh in the maiguzari area, with permission, however , to the zamindars, if the majority so wish to exclude the land from the batch during their pleasure. The object of these instructions is to put these small m’afis on their original footing of lands released by the zamindars. In order to effect this change more smoothly and with as few resumption’s as possible on the part of the villagers , the Government agrees to give up for one settlement the revenue which might have been assessed on these resumed m’afis. By this procedure it costs the villagers nothing to continue the grant as one from themselves and they are therefore more likely to adopt this course. At the same time if they do elect to assess these plots it becomes clear that the assessment is their work and not ours. “

It is of course open to the Collector of a district to propose that a life m’afi for village service or in favour of a village institution the term of which has expired by the death of the holder should be continued for the period of the current settlement of the district.

 

197.Assessment of lands of which the revenue is assigned. The law and practice as regards the assessment of lands of which the revenue is assigned are explained in paragraphs 180-81 of the Settlement Manual . It is rarely necessary for the Collector to make a new assessment when a grant is resumed. The following orders which were previously Land Revenue rules 214 and 215 and issued under section 59 of the Land Revenue Act provide that :-

(a)   When in any district or tahsil an assignment of land revenue’s is resumed , if that land revenue was assessed in the same from and by the same method as that in and by which land revenue paid to government on the same estate or on adjacent estates was assessed at the last general assessment , no new assessment of the resumed assignment shall be made until a general re-assessment of the district or tahsil is undertaken.

(b)  If the land revenue enjoyed by the assignee was not so assessed , or if where the assignee was himself the landowner no assessment of his land has hitherto been made the Collector shall assess land revenue on the land of which the revenue has been resumed in conformity with the principles and Instructions on which the current assessment of the tahsil or district was made.”

“Care should however, be taken that the land revenue imposed on such land does not raise the total assessment of the circle in which it is situated to more than one fourth of the net assets of the circle. If the land forms parts of an estate and is not excluded from the provisions of section 51(3) by section 51(4) of the Punjab Land Revenue Act, 1887 , this object can in most cases be secured for all practical purposes by providing that the average rate of incidence on such land does not exceed the average rate of the estate in which it is included . Any case in which this is not suitable , as for example of specially valuable land should be referred for orders . If however, the land consists of a fresh estate, the rate of incidence of the assessment imposed thereon should not be such as to raise the existing average rate of incidence of the assessment circle beyond the limit prescribed in section 51(3).

 

198. Revisions of assessment and suspensions and remission. The owners of land of which the revenue is assigned are entitled to exactly the same treatment as regards revision of assessment and suspensions and remissions on account of calamities of season , as the proprietors khalsa lands. (Financial Commissioner’s Book circular No. LIII of 1860. Special vigilance is required in enforcing this principle where a jagridar is still allowed to collect the revenue direct from the landowners.

 

199. Jurisdiction of civil courts as regards assignments barred between annexation and 1867. Lord Dalhousie’s declaration that “by our occupation of the country , after the whole Sikh nation had been in arms against us we have acquired the absolute right of conquers and would be justified in declaring every acre of land liable to Government assessment” has already been quoted (paragraph 89) Commenting on this in the case of sardar Bhagwan Singh versus . The Secretary of State (Punjab Record, 1875, No. 1), the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council observed –

It appears to their Lordships that by these directions to the Board it was contemplated by the Governor –General to make what may be called a tabula Rasa of tenures of this kind and to re-grant them on terms entirely at the discretion of the British government the Government no doubt intending to act with allfairness and consideration, especially to those who appear to have been not unfaithful to them , but at the same time in a manner which appeared right and just to themselves and which they did not intend to be inquired into or questioned by any Municipal Courts.”

The Board of Administration ruled in 1853 that the civil courts should not take orgnizance of claims of relatives to participation under the general laws cognizance of claims of relatives to participation under the general laws of inheritance in rent free holdings which have been conferred on particular individual by orders of government .(Board circular No 5 of 1853.) . And by sections 1 –10 of first part of the Punjab Civil Code, punished in 1854 , the jurisdiction of these courts was barred as regards “any matter relating to jagir rent-free tenures , or tenures of other grants made by Government * * * * * or to the succession thereto , or to the shares , rights and interest theirin * * * * *but, if the jagirdars or m’afidars shall have farmed those rents or revenues to a third party , possessing no proprietary rights in the estate, then suits between the jagirdar or m’afidar and such third party may be entertained by the courts “

The first Code of Civil Procedure was extended to the Punjab from 1st October , 1866 and between 1867 and 1871, when the Pensions Act was passed, the Chief Court claimed and in a few instances exercised , jurisdiction in jagir cases.

 

200. Provisions of the pensions Act, XXIII of 1871. The matter has been finally settled by sections 4 to 6 Act XXIII of 1871 which provide that :-

“4. Except as hereinafter provided , no civil court shall entertain any suit relating to any pensions or grant of money or land revenue conferred or made by the British or any former Government , whatever may have been consideration for any such pension or grants and whatever may have the nature of the payment , claim or right , for which such pension or grant may have been substituted.

“5. Any person having a claim relating to any such pension or grant may prefer such claim to the Collector of the district *** or other officer authorized in this behalf by the Local Government and such Collector ** * * *or other officer shall dispose of such claim in accordance with such rules as the Chief Revenue Authority may subject to the general control of the Local government from time to time prescribed in this behalf.

“6. A civil court, otherwise competent to try the same shall take cognizance of any such claim upon receiving a certificate from such Collector * * * or other officer authorized in that behalf that the case may be so tried, but shall not make any order or decree in any suit whatever by which the liability or Government to pay any such pension or grants as aforesaid is affected directly or indirectly.”

 

201.           Cases in which a certificate may be granted. Rules 8 and 9 issued under section 14 of Act XXIII of 1871 (Financial Commissioners notification No. 22 dated 3rd February , 1910 , and Punjab Land ) provide that :-

 

8. When a claim relating to a hereditary pension or grant of money or land revenue is preferred to a Deputy Commissioner under section 5 of the Act, and the inheritance of any other property or of a share in the property of a Hindu joint family is in dispute between he parties, the Deputy Commissioner may with the sanction of the Financial Commissioner certify that such may be tried by a civil court . Such certificate shall be forward by a civil court having jurisdiction in regard to the other property in dispute.

 

“9. When a claim relating to a hereditary pension or grant of money or land revenue which is according to law or by the terms of the grant , transferable, is preferred to a Deputy Commissioner under section 5 of the Act. The Deputy Commissioner may certify that such claim may be tried by a civil court.”

The second rule refers to assignments in the Delhi territory made before its annexation to the Punjab (paragraph 128-133)

 

202.           Recovery of cost of assessment from jagirdars. The rules regarding the recovery from jagirdars of the cost of the assessment of 2nd of which the revenue is assigned will be found in appendix XIX of the Settlement Manual.

 

 

BOOK II

ORGANIZATION FOR PURPOSES OF LAND ADMINISTRATION

AnchorCHAPTER IV
SCHEME OF REVENUE ADMINISTRATION

 

203. Revenue divisions, districts and tahsils. For the purposes of revenue management, the Punjab divided into 29 district, each in charge of a Deputy commissioner or Collector. These districts are grouped into five divisions, each under a commissioner. The commissioner exercises control over all the revenue officers and courts in his division and is himself subject to the general superintendence and control of the Financial Commissioner, who, under the Revenue Member of Government, is the head of the revenue administration. At the headquarters of a district there are in addition to a large ministerial staff, several officers appointed by the local Government who exercise executive and judicial functions under the orders of the Deputy Commissioner. They are known as assistant commissioners if they are members of the Indian Civil service, and as Extra Assistant Commissioners if they belong to the Punjab civil service. One of these assistant or Extra Assistant Commissioners , chosen for his special aptitude for revenue work, and called the Revenue Assistant, devotes almost the whole of his time to business connected with land administration. A district is divided into several tehsils, to each of which a tehsildar and naib-tehsildar are appointed. The Poisson of the naib-tahsilder with reference to the tahsilder are appointed. The Poisson of the naib-tahsildar with reference to the tahsidar is like that of an Assistant Commissioner with reference to the head of the distrait. Tahsildars and naib-tahsildars exercise administrative and judicial functions within the limits of their own tahsils. In the few there are two naib-tahsildars. In such cases the one who possesses the larger experience sometimes has a definite part of the tahsil assigned to him as a sub-tahsil within the limits of which he resides. In the saw way in some districts one or more thrills are formed into an outpost or sub-division, and put in special charge of a resident Assistant or Extra Assistant Commissioner. Within his own sub-division such an officer performs all the duties usually entrusted to a Revenue Assistant.

 

204. Villages and zails - The unit of revenue administration in the Punjab is the estate or mahal. Which is usually is enticed width the village or mauza. Of these estates ,large and small, a tahsil as a rule, contains from two to four hundred . each of them is separately assessed to land revenue which it is the business of the duty commissioner to collect and has a separate record of rights and register of fiscal and agricultural statistics , which it is his duty to maintain. All its proprietors are by law jointly responsible for the payment of its land revenue, and in their dealings with Government they are represented by one or more headmen or lambardars. The bound which unites the proprietary body may be a strong and natural, or a weak and artificial, one. At the one end of the scale are the compact village communities of Rohtak and Karnal, whose landowners are held together by real or assumed ties of kinship; at the other. The estates of the south-western Punjab. Which are often mere collections of independent well holdings. While in the new colonies there is little bond beyond such similarities of tribe, religion and home of the original colonists as the colonization officer may had been able to secure. No deputy commissioner can rightly perform his duties without a full knowledge of the land tenures of his district. A careful perusal of the gazetteer ,and the reports of past settlements, will supply the foundation, but the superstructure must be built up by personal observation and enquiry and by the examination of village note books and records of rights. The village system of north western India, properly organized and wisely worked forms a powerful engine of administration. To make it still more effective clusters of villages which are quitted by the bond of tribal or historical association, or of common interests, are usually formed into circles or zails over each of which the appointed a zaildar chosen by the Deputy commissioner from among the leading village headmen. The jaildars receive their emoluments from Government by the deduction from the land revenue, the headmen are paid by the communities which they represent by the surcharge of five percent on the revenue. Together they form the valuable unofficial agency, through which the deputy commissioner and the tahsildar convey the wishes of the government to the people and secure the carrying out of their own orders.

 

205. patwaris’ and kanungos’ circles. But there is also an official chain connecting the village which the tehsil for the purpose of the maintains of revenue records and agricultural statistics, estates are grouped into small circles to each of which a patwari or village register is appointed. About twenty of these circles form the charge of a field kanungo, whose duty it is to supervise the work of the patwaris. Kanungos are servants of Government .

 

Anchor206      The director of land records. To aid deputy commissioners and commissioners in the maintenance of records of rights and revenue registers, and to advise the Financial commissioners and Government on these matters and on measures for the promotion of agricultural efficiency, an officer known as the director of land Records, is appointed. He has no administrative functions; his business is to inspect, advise, record or lesson the powers and responsibilities belonging to Deputy commissioners and commissioners and to the financial commissioners in connection with every batch of revenue administration.

 

207. Duties of Director of land Records. Among the principle duties of the director of land Records are-

(a)   the supervision of the patwari and kanungo agency and the inspection of the records of rights and statistical records compiled through its means. The posting of settlement kanungos and maps. His duties with regard to settlements and defined in appendix vi-B of the Settlement Manual;

(b)  the control of the income and expenditure of mutation fees and of all expenditure on contingencies connected with the kanungo and patwari establishment and with the revenue records;

(c)   crop, price and weather reports, return of wages and of agricultural statistics, crop experiments by district officers and cattle census;

(d)  rain-gauges

The director of land records brings to the notice of the deputy commissioner or commissioner any failure to carry out properly the provisions regarding these matters contained on the land revenue Act and rules or in administrative instructions issued by the Financial commissioners. On points of detail his recommendations should usually be accepted as those of an expert charged with duties of a technical character. But all doubtful and important questions should be referred by the director for the orders of the Financial commissioner. when a districts under settlement., or when special measures adopting taken for the bringing of maps and records up to date as preliminary to re-assessment, the Director will make this reports to the Financial commissioner. He must not himself issue instructions to the officer on charge. Any orders which the Financial commissioner may issues will be sent through the commissioner. In other cases reports by the Director of Land Records on his inspections of the land records if any distract are submitted to the commissioner of the division. The Director of Land Records is also inspector-General of Registration.

 

Anchor208. Duties of Director of agriculture. In order to promote the technical efficiency of Agriculture a separate department has been consisted under a director. The director of agriculture has charge of the following subjects.

(a)   agricultural education and research at the Punjab agriculture college and research institute, Lyallpur, and at the agricultural farms.

(b)  Experimental seed and demonstration farms.

(c)   Agricultural engineering, including well- boring lift irrigation, implements etc.

(d)  Measures for encouraging the adoption of improved seed, implements methods of cultivation, and for controlling plant diseased, insects pests etc.

(e)   Agricultural associations , competitions, exhibitions and produce shows.

(f)   Rural industries , silk, bees, lac and poultry.

(g)   Crop experiments when carried out by officers of the department.

(h)  The Lawrence gardens, Lahore.

(i)    Administration of the cotton ginning and pressing factories act of 1925.

(j)    Crop forecasts.

208-A. Development of agriculture Department. The need for more attention being paid to the application of science to agriculture was repeatedly brought to the notice of the Government of India , and in 1871 a department of revenue, agriculture and commerce was established. In the provinces the subject of agricultural improvement was similarly allotted to the revenue department, but little was done beyond the organization of a system of agricultural statistics and few attempts at the introduction of implements and seeds from abroad. The famine commission of 1880 made a through review of the whole agricultural situation and recommended, amongst other matters, the constitution of an agricultural department each province with a director at its head; this departments main functions were to be agricultural enquiry and improvement and famine relief. The next ten years saw many conferences and the position in the provinces was carefully investments to the royal agricultural society , to advise as to the best methods of applying to Indian agriculture the teaching of agricultural chemistry and his recommendations were later embodied in his book “ the improvement of Indian agriculture .” shortly after the government of India began to recruit of its first experts, but little progress in this direction was made in the provinces until the famine commission of 1901 recommended the strengthening of the expert stead in the provinces; Lord curzon’s government took speedy action on these recommendations, and the dispatch to the secretary of state of 1905 led to the inauguration of a separate department of agriculture in 1906. Previous to this, the only attempt at experiment on modern lines had been confined to the farm of 56 acres opened at Lyallpur . in 1901 which was staffed with agricultural assistants trained at cawnpore. The first deputy director of agricultural was sanctioned in 1904, and about the same time the province shared an economic Botanist with the united provinces.

The dispatch to the secretary of state above mentioned(no. 16, dated 12th jan.1905)enunciated the following policy:-

 

“in a country s largely agricultural as India, a government which owns the largest landed estate in the world, should do far more than we are now doing for the improvements of local agriculture. The ultimate aim, which we set before ourselves, is the establishment of an experiments farm in each large tract of country , of which the agricultural college, teaching up to a three years course in each of the larger provinces, and the provision of and expert staff in connection with these colleges for purposes of research as well as of education …. These establishment of seed and demonstration farms will certainly form part of our program.”

In the same year the government of India announced their policy of setting aside annually a sum of twenty lakhs of rupees, subsequently increased to Rs. 24 lakhs, for the development of agricultural research, experiment, demonstration and education in the provinces. The aim was to establish agricultural colleges, with expert staffs, for instruction and research under a whole time director and the experts were provided for by the constitution of an imperial agricultural service 1906. Progress along the lines prescribed in 1905 continued steadily, except for the interruption caused by the war, until the introduction of the reforms.

With the inauguration of the reforms scheme in 1921, agriculture became a transferred department under the charge of a minister. The functions of the department are divided into three main heads:-

(1)  education;

(2)  research and investigation;

(3)  demonstration and propaganda.

 

Education:- the Punjab agricultural college, Lyallpur, was opened in September, 1909. Its main object is to give such training in scientific agriculture as will enable the student to promote the progress of agriculture in the providence on the most approved modern lines. In 1917 the institution was affiliated to the Punjab university , and since then it has had a four years degrees course. Combined with the college is a well equipped research institute which is the main center of agricultural research in the province.

The botanical section of the research institute works on improved types of wheat’s, cotton, grams, barleys, millets oil seeds, fodder crops, etc. and also deals with fruit cultivation and mycological problems.

The chemical section undertakes analytic work on soils, manure’s, fodders, etc. the determination of the nutritive value of crops and other animal foods work on the reclamation of bara lands; bacteriological research, including seed inoculation, etc.

The entomological section conducts researches on insect and other animal pests, and studies means to combat them. It also deals with sericulture apiculture and lac-culture.

The engineering section so engaged on the preparation of schemes for lift irrigation, the augmentation of water from ordinary wells and the installation of tube wells . it also conducts research work on well boring machines strainers, agricultural implements etc.

Investigations conducted outside the Lyallpur institution –there are experimental farms at Gurdaspur, Hansi, Sirsa, Lyallpur, multan, montgomery, rawa;pindi and sargodha, in addition to various seed and demonstration farms. The experimental farms carry out experiment with different types of crops in order to ascertain their suitability to particular tacts, to show the effects of different methods of cultivation, irrigation and manuring, and to test the relative usefulness of different types of agricultural implements. They also afford demonstrations to the zamindars who visit them.

Demonstration and propaganda – this work is conducted by means of demonstration plots established on cultivators fields throughout the provide, also by demonstrations of implements and exhibition of crop produce at fairs and other gatherings of farmers, sale of seed from department, district lectures, ploughing matches, campaigns for the eradication of crop pests, agriculture; association, department publications etc.

 

209. Duties of the director of veterinary services. In order to encourage all possible measures for the prevention of cattle disease, the cure of sick or injured animals and for the improvement of the breeds, a separate veterinary department has been constituted under a director of veterinary services, the director, veterinary services has charge of the following subjects;-

(a)   veterinary education at the Punjab veterinary college Lahore.

(b)  Veterinary research.

(c)   Treatment of cattle disease throughout the province , and of equine disease in the “non selected” districts.

(d)  Cattle breeding throughout the province, and horse breeding in the “non selected districts.

(e)   Supervision of horse and cattle fairs and shows.

(f)   Control of the veterinary arrangements in Delhi and north –west fronter provinces.

(g)   General control of veterinary dispensaries and buildings.

 

209-A. General development of the civil veterinary department. Cattle –breeding far at Hissar has an area of 42,000 acres, and is thus the largest of India: it was originally established in 1809 for camel- breeding, but work was the supply of artillery and ordnance bullocks. In 1899 the charge of the farm was transferred to the civil veterinary department of the government of India and on the abolition of the post of inspector general . it was transferred by the government of India to the Punjab government. Since then it has been the largest single source of pedigree bulls in the province, and has produced over 4,000 of these for service in villages. It is estimated that over 3,000 of there are still available and the number turned out at Hissar is sufficient to replace casualties and added to the total bull- power of the province. Most of the bulls are supplied to district boards at confessional rates.

Liberal grants are given annually for the improvements of the Dhanni and Hariana breeds of cattle to the following district boards on suitable conditions:-

Attock, rawalpindi, jhelum, shahpur and mianwali district boards, for the improvements of the dhanni breed of cattle.

Hissar, rohtak and gurgaon district boards, for the improvements of the Hariana breed.

In accordance with the policy of the department to concentrate attention on certain areas best suited for cattle- breeding, the above system of grants was introduced for the dhanni cattle tract in 1919-20 and for the hariana cattle tract in 1924-25.

Five cattle farms of a total area about 15,300 areas have been allotted to grantees in the lower Bari Doab Canel Colony. Out of these , 2 are intended for pure-breed Montgomery cattle and the remaining 3 for Hissar cattle. In addition, a grantee dairy farm comprising an area of 485 acres, has been started in the town of Montgomery. Besides, there are in the neighborhood of shergarh, district Montgomery,” shergarh small holders grants” comprising 218 ½ rectangles of land in 7 different chaks. The condition on which the grants are allotted is that the grantee must maintain two cows of the Montgomery breed approved by the veterinary department for each rectangle of 25 acres.

 

209-B. Erosion. Erosion is the collector’s worst enemy. It occurs in both cultivated and in uncultivated land and an instance of the disastrous effects it can have. Will be seen in chapter vi (728 and following paragraphs)

 

(1) Cultivated land- When rain falls on sloping land, it will, unless checked. Flow away down hill carrying with it part of the top-soil and leaching out valuable chemicals form the rest of the top-soil. In addition so much water which might have soaked into the ground to reinforce the sub-soil moisture and so keep the field moist till the next shower, is utterly lost. The top-soil contains most of the fertility to the soil and as both manure and rain are all too limited in many parts of the Punjab, they must be most carefully preserved noticed either by the cultivator or by the revenue staff.”

The next stage is “gully erosion” the surface of sloping cultivation is generally uneven and is characterized by longitudinal depressions which even if they are barely perceptible, draw off water from the land on the both sides of them. Water flow from the higher ground into these drainage lines increasing the volume and speed. The result is increased erosion align the depressions : the water cuts downwards and backwards into the fields, forming gullies which increase in size according to the steeples of the slope and area and promote desiccation by acceleration the drying out of the sub-soil moisture. This form of damage, called gully erosion, is fortunately obvious to everyone.

Practically all land in the Punjab lies on slope, almost imperceptible in irrigated fields, but generally noticeable in barani lands, irrigated land is usually protected by the banks called wats of dauls made for retaining the irrigation water. Unirrigated lands require the same kind of protection and require also to be leveled so that rain water shall be evenly on them and not of top soil. Careful owners terrace and embank their fields, thus increasing the available moisture in the soil and conserving fertility by preventing the valuable top-soil from being eroded. but many landlords are careless and neglect this duties to the land. Both gully and sheet erosion occur in sloping fields and in fields which are not embanked or where the banks are neglected and allowed to break. Much land can be lost in a very short time and once gone can never be recovered. At the best, the top-soil, instead of being improved by farming, as it should be, steadily deteriorates through erosion. Where conditions of slope and soil however are favourable for such a thing to happen, heavy rainstorms may wash away the shoal of the top-soil ,leaving the farmer to start allover again, with only the criss-cross marks of the plough tip on top of the hard sub-soil to remind him of his precious labours.

Land well terraced and embanked does not erode, and wherever the slope is appreciable fields must be labeled and embanked. The principle is that where rain falls there it must stay until it has either soaked in or the cultivator has done with it there is ordinarily no harm in bringing sloping ground under cultivation if this observed; but the indiscriminate breaking up of slopes means the rapid destruction of their value and must be resisted by all means possible.

The hard surface of follow land resist the absorption of rain water and contributes largely to the amount of run –off from a given area. Recently ploughed land will absorb rainfall and therefore the breaking up of stubble’s by dry proughing if necessary, as soon s possible after harvest, should be given every encouragement.

Unassored storm water standing for long in terraced fields with clay soils is, however, harmful to certain crops, and where conditions indicate the necessity for it the field system should be such as to ensure the draining await harmlessly of the surplus water.

Water gathering volume and force as to flows and soon becomes uncontrollable, making it offer impossible for the landowners lower down the slopes to protect their fields till the water has been brought under control higher up. This implies collective action on the part of the zamindars, and soil conservation, therefore, requires organization and is eminently suited to co-operative enterprise; but all cases the attention of the revenue staff will make it easier to accomplish and to maintain.

Consolidation of holdings can often be of great assistance giving each landholders control of as much as possible of the catchment area of his fields, sitting the boundaries of the holdings along the contours and enabling drains to be provided for surplus storm water.

Where holdings are large, the fields at a distance from the abide are often very much neglected, and being in the hands of temporary tenants with no interest in improving the soil, they suffer most from erosion.

(2) Uncultivated land:- it is unusual to terrace and embank uncultivated land and therefore it must be protected from sheet and gully erosion by adequate cover or mat of vegetation, either grail, bushes or trees or a mixture of all there. If left to itself, nature will maintain a balance and there will be no serious erosion, but if grazing, browning, and the feeling and lopping of trees are uncontrolled, both sheet and gully erosion will start causing all the harm described above. The technique of erosion is simple. The removal of vegetation exposes the soil, the feet of the animals break it up and the rain washes it away. The top soil goes, the good grasses die out, the trees are unable to reproduce themselves , the hillside becomes dry and unstable. Landslides start, and those who depend on the hillsides, both man and beast, find their livelihood reduced. Storm water, no longer impeded and restrained by vegetation, rushes down the slopes to the streams and fails to percolate into the soil, with the result that the sub-soil water level sinks both in the hills and in the plains below, the violence of the floods in the plains is increased fertile land is covered with sand, fields and villages are cut away, vast quantities of silt choke the canals and river beds, the hillsides and hill streams quickly dry up after the monsoon, and the run –off of the rivers during the dry seasons is seriously reduced.

There are several ways of dealing with uncultivated land. Where there is no valuable tree crop the shamilat may be partitioned with advantage, when every owner puts a dry stone wall or a thorn fence round his share and protects it from outside men and beasts. Panchayats of co-operative societies with expert supervision may organize the preservation and utilization of common grazing grounds and forests or government may use the chos act of the forest act to exercise control through its own servants. A hillside yields most grass, timber and other produce when there is no gracing or browing , when the grail is cut with a sickle the trees felled when mature and the fodder trees are lopped in rotation, and timber cut no faster than it can be replaced by fresh growth. The interest of both government and villager, therefore, are best served by strict preservation of the hillsides and the stall-feeding of cattle. In certain circumstances, however and under strict control, grassing and browsing are harmless but they can only be safety done under the guidance of experts and where the fertility of the locality is such that the rate of recovery of the grass and bushes equals or exceeds the rate of their consumption by animals.

 

Where erosion is serious, whether in cultivated of uncultivated land, the result is the formation of board sandy nullahs, which are continually widening at the expense of the cultivated lands on both banks, and cause increasing devastation throughout their course. Although these torrents-such a torrent is called a chain the siwaliks and a has in the salt range-often take their rise in the hills, they usually get most of their water from cultivated lands. Once counter erosion measures have begun to take effect in the catchment area of a kas of cho, reclamation of the cho-bed itself can start and the co-operative method is particularly helpful in this work.

The people themselves have a shrewd knowledge both of the evil and of its cure. Good cattle are never driven on to a hillside to graze. They are tied up and stall-fed. When shamlat land has been partitioned, may owners carefully protect their own share. In general however, the people are disorganized and what is every men’s care is no one’s. moreover, the people treatment of hillsides and grazing grounds involves a complete changing of the whole routine of work and life and in what country will villagers adopt new methods willingly? The menace, however is insistent. The top-soil of an agricultural country is its principal capital asset and those who left it be washed away are not only losing their own livelihood but are robbing posterity and the nation. Nothing therefore must be left undone to enable the best use to be made of the rain to preserve the soil and to increase its fertility. The revenue staff is expected to do everything possible to ensure that methods of cultivation and pastoral habits and practices shall be such as to secure the stability of the soil both in fields and pastures. It is the duty of the collector to study the land fr which he is responsible, to in list the goodwill and co-operation of the villagers, and with the assistance of the forest and other departments to apply whatever methods are best suited to the people and the locality for the checking of erosion and the conservation of the soil both in cultivated and in uncultivated land.”

210. Revenue officers under the land revenue and tenancy acts. The Deputy commissioner as the head of the revenue administration of his district is known as the collector, and his assistants, including tahsildars and nain-tehsildars as assistant collectors of the first of second grade. Under the land revenue and tenancy acts there are the sane classes of revenue officers, and a revenue officer of any grade so deemed to be a revenue court of the same grade. The powers of the collector and assistant collectors as revenue officers are described in the next chapter, and their jurisdiction as revenue courts in chapter XXIII On first appointment , assistant commissioners and extra assistant commissioner, exercise ex-officio the powers of assistant collectors of the second grade. As soon as they have been invested with second class magisterial and civil powers, they become ipso facto assistant collectors of the first grade. Tehsidars and naib-tehsildars,as such are assistant collectors of the second grade but the former may be appointed assistant collector of the first grade. The deputy commissioner is a collector by virtue of his office, under the acts and so it is not necessary to gazette him such powers but the local government nay confer all of any of the powers of a collector on any other revenue officer in the district. When a general reassessment is in progress, it is usual to give to the settlement officer all the powers of a collector under the land revenue act, except those which relate to the collection of revenue. Instruction as to the division of work between the deputy commissioner and the settlement officer will be found in appendix vi of the settlement manual.

211. Revenue officers also magistrates. The collectors and his assistant’s are also magistrates. This concentration in a single hand of executive and judicial functions has been a subject of controversy. The advantages resulting from it were thus set forth by Thomason-

“the influence and the opportunity of beneficial exertion which result from this are great . it is essential to the advancement of the public interests, entrusted the collector that complete security of life and property should exist throughout the district. It is essential to the development of industry that all lawless violence should be repressed, and so repressed as least to interfere with the comfort and welfare of the peaceful and well disposed. The strong establishments in the revenue department may be made the efficient agents for strengthening and regulating the police, and the magistrate, in the discharge of his duties as collector, will have opened out to him channels of information and sources of influence which when duly improved, cannot fail to exercise a most beneficial effect.”

212. Relations of deputy commissioner with officers of other departments. Thomson’s remarks on the many-sided character of a deputy commissioner’s work are also worth quoting-

“nothing can pass the district of which it is not the duty of the collector to keep himself informed and to watch the operation. The vicissitudes if trade, the administration of civil justice, the progress of public works, must all affect materially the interests of the classes of whom he is the constituted guardian. Officers interference in matters beyond his immediate control must be avoided, but temperate and intelligent remonstrance against anything which he sees to be wrong so one of his most important duties.” !

if he shows tact and discretion, and cultivates personal relates with officers of other departments employed in his district, he will usually find that they are ready to attend carefully to any representations which he finds it his duty to make to them. The administration of civil justice is no longer within his orbit, but even here it is his duty to report to his commissioner matters affecting the welfare and contentment of the people.

213. Cancelled.

214. Qualification required for successful district administration. To manage a district successfully require qualities rarely found united in a single person. No man can properly represent government to the people who is lacking in sympathy or in the power of conversing with them easily in their own tongue. But to these qualities must be added patience and promptitude, tact and firmness, accessibility without familiarity, a Sherwood appreciation of knowledge of the details of all branches of his duty and great capacity for personal exertion, with a willingness to hand over to trustworthy subordinates a large share of the work, while maintaining complete control over the machinery of administration. One great secret of success is the power of making full use of assistants in all grades. The collector who insists on doing everything himself is sure to leave many things undone and to fritter away on small details time that should be devoted to more important matters. At the same time ,he is responsible for and bound to control, all the doings of his subordinates ,and there is nothing they more readily believe then that this or that official, whose duties bring him much in contact with his master has an unique influence over him. The work should be carefully laid out the part of it which is entrusted to each officer and the limits within which he may act in his own authority being explained to him. No one can do this who has not himself a thorough acquaintance with every branch of district work and of the powers and capacities of his establishment it may be said that much of the success of district administration depends on accuracy of judging of how much may suitability be left to others and how much must be done by the deputy commissioner himself.

215. Aids to rapid acquisition of knowledge of a district. Every deputy commissioner is bound, when making over charge, to hand to his successor a confidential memorandum calling his attention to the most important features of the district administration and supplying him with notes as to the chief matters which are pending and as to the character and capabilities if his principal subordinates. Much information regarding the district lies ready to hand in the gazetteer and on settlement and assessment reports. If these sources of information are supplemented by diligent personal enquiry and systematic touring, it is possible to obtain a real grasp of the work in a comparatively short space of time.

216   Cancelled

217. Extra assistant commissioners and tahsildars. The efficiency of a collector’s administration depends greatly on the extent to which he can get good work out of his colleagues and subordinates and this in turn depends to large extent on his own conduct towards them. Under the peculiar social difficulties of the country, the accurate estimate of character obtainable from the confidences of private intercourse is difficult to secure, and it becomes ass the more important to give free access to them in all official matters and to take every step to inspire them with confidence in his judgement , rectitude and impartiality. Unwarranted suspicion may be as fatal as unwarranted confidence. These officers are the expectants of the collector’s orders, they must be in great measure, the exponents of his will, and should be to some degree his confidential advisers in cases of difficulty. It will be found good policy to consult these who are best able to give advice, and to weight their expressed opinions impartially and dispassionately.

218. Clerks and readers. The sympathetic treatment of clerks and readers is usually well repaid by better quality of work; forcing upon them irregular hours, keeping them waiting at the officer’s house, or insisting upon their standing for long stretches of time is apt to interfere with the rendering of full reduced.

219. Training of assistant commissioners. The responsibility of deputy commissioners towards assistant commissioners under them is if a very special character in view of the fact that they may themselves in a few years be placed in charge of districts.

It is of great importance that they should receive a thorough training in the different branches of district administration, and the following orders have recently been issued on the subject:-

During his first year the newly joined officer should-

(a)   pass the departmental examinations in all subjects, including urdu and Punjabi;

(b)  familiarize himself with the people os the Punjab, especially the villagers, so that he may be able toured stand their dealings with each other and relations with Government;

(c)   do enough magi’s magisterial work to be able that a fairly early date after passing his examinations to perform the duties of ill was magistrate, or even sub-divisional officer, with confidence;

(d)  acquire a working knowledge of elementary revenue work, both as a revenue officer and as a revenue court; and

(e)   undergo training in treasury, office work and general administration.

It is a mistake to give newly joined officer routine executive work during their first six months of service. The average assistant commissioner arrives without any experience of essentials. He hopes and expects to be given work at once, and is only too pleased to take over a “subject” such as passports of the licensing of motor vehicles. His request for work is sometimes difficult to resist , but if it is acceded to, he is almost certain to be deceived by his clerks and may learn habits of inaccuracy which he will later regret.

It should be recognized that newly joined officers are for at least six months merely pupils in executive matters and should have no independent responsibility.

2. The following considerations should be borne in mind with regard to the matters mentioned in the preceding paragraph:-

(a)   Departmental Examinations- the learner must read booked in his own time. The main difficulty is with the languages. A pass in the examination does not always mean that a candidate is intelligible in the field. Assistant commissioners under training should speak nothing but undue to the tahsildars and revenue assistants with whom they tour, and these officers should have orders to correct their mistakes. Urdu and Punjabi are best learned from selected court readers, who are less prone to “talk down” to their pupis than the illqualified professional teacher usually available in small stations. Urdu should be passed in may and Punjab in October.

To fulfil the language test so far as that relates to judicial work, officers should make a practice of reading through an easy petition or other simple vernacular record every day from the time they commence to study the language with a munshi, and should seek to acquire as quickly as possible a knowledge of the translation of the translation of the commoner terms used in the principal acts which they have to take up, and in rules under them, particularly those under the land revenue and tenancy acts. Parts of these should be read with the court reader and a careful record should be made of the translation of all terms as they are met. As soon as a knowledge of these has been acquired, officers should commence to practice themselves in re-writing translations of as judgements, etc, which they will translate from the vernacular as explained above.

Junior officers should take every opportunity of mixing and talking with all classes of Indians, and especially the agricultural classes. No one should ever be discouraged at slow progress in speaking the language. Even in the case of those who find special difficulty in picking up a language colloquially, experience shows that if only one struggles on persistently, fluency is bound to come in the long run. It is a good plan to note under various heads for ready reference all new words that one heads, and it is an excellent plan for acquiring the accent and run of the language to repeat over to oneself the words spoken by others as exactly as possible whether they intend to go in for language reward examinations or not, all junior officers should make a point of carefully reading through a certain number of good urdu books vocabulary. Those offices, who, while studying the language , will take the trouble to acquire some facility in oriental penmanship will find that they will never regret the spent on this accomplishment.

(b)  Contract with the people—a knowledge of the people and their ways can be acquired only by systematic touring. Newly joined officers should be told to keep their eyes open on tour and to add questions about everything that they do not understand. Administration matters such as crime, medical relief, education, the co-operative movement, communications, agricultural improvement and public health should be borne in mind and studied.

(c)   Magisterial work—as regards training in judicial work, the best plan at first if for a junior officer to sit some hours daily in the court of another magistrate or judge for a week or two, and with his codes in his hand learn for by observation something of the actual practice of procedure and get a flair for the method of reasoning which an intelligent magistrate employs in arriving at his decisions. In learning this he will probably also pick up a number of the terms of procedure. He should at the same time begin to work through evidence and the proceedings as he does so, and afterwards using these translations for re-translation into the vernacular. After two weeks of such work an officer will probably have gained sufficient experience to enable him to try very simple cases which the district magistrate into ordinary matters. Every officers should continue for some methods to translate his English judgements into the vernacular so as to acquire increased facility in this respect.

(d)  Revenue work—a properly arranged program should give the assistant commissioner a general outline of the routine revenue work of a district. Form his third month the learner will do 2nd grade revenue court work. From his seventh or eighth month he should be given the work of one or two kanungo’s circles. He should propose the mode of partition in a few partition grade work in the circle selected including revenue court work.

(e)   Training in treasury, office work, and general administration—treasury training is best done in the summer, whether in the plains of hills. The outlines of office organization should be taught early-say, in the second month; no independent office work should be given to a pupil until about the eighth month. The best” subject” to be entrusted to him then are local bodies and or exercise. Both these subjects involve the application of acts and rules; vernacular correspondence with subordinate authorities; and formal English correspondence with superiors. By “general administration” is meant those administrative matters which cannot be grouped under any one head, but which occupy much of a depute commissioner’s time, e.g. crime, the activities of the beneficent departments, elections, political unrest and the like. The learner can best inform himself on these matters by discussions with his deputy commissioner. He should also spend some days in the office of the district board, which, when the deputy commissioner is chairman, is not under the officer-in-charge of local bodies. These several matter require attention on tour and the assistant commissioner should be instructed accordingly when orders for each tour are given to him.

220. Tahsil may be made over to assistant commissioner. After a time it is a good plan to put an assistant commissioner in charge of a particular tahsil, and to make him spend in it a large part of the cold weather. If this is done, he will take an interest in the welfare of his charge, and exert himself to become fully acquainted with all that concerns it and to prevent the occurrence of anything that is wrong. He will have an opportunity of gaining a knowledge of every branch of his duty which will fit him to manage a sub-division or a district when entrusted to him. An assistant in charge of a tahsilhas an excellent opportunity, while refraining from any undue interference with the tahsildar, of making himself familiar with the daily routine of the work of a tahsil office, which is sure to be of great use to him in the future.

221. Assistant commission not to assume authority. An assistant commissioner is subject to the control of the deputy commissioner in all his work and should not, without his permission, issue orders making important changes, lying down rules of practice or censuring or punishing officials but he may recommend such measures to the deputy commissioner. He should not correspond with the deputy commissioner by official letter or robber, as through his office were separate and distinct, but by demi-official letter and personal conference, or by sending up the vernacular file which leads to the reference, usually with an English memorandum prefixed.

222. Settlement training of assistant commissioner. A certain number of assistant commissioner are deputed, as opportunity offers, for a four months course of training in tracts in which a general reassessment of land revenue is in progress. Rightly employed, this period is long enough to give an intelligent man a competent knowledge of survey and record work, and also of the board features of assessment work. If a newly-joined assistant is sent for settlement training, it is usual to give him two months training in his fist cold weather and two in a later year. The instructions as to the nature of the training ti be given will be found in standing order no.8. as the opportunity for settlement training is now less frequently available, officers are being sent to a revenue training class in the cold weather.

223. Appointment of extra assistant commissioners. Extra assistant commissioners are appointed partly by selection by selection of men who have done approved service in lower appointments, partly by competitive examination and partly by the direct appointment of young men of good family. The rules on the subject will be bond in the punjab government notification no.9490, dated 19th 1930. Candidates who obtain the post of extra assistant commissioner by competition or by direct appointment are on probation for two years. For the first nine months of this period they receive training in a district under settlement or they may be sent to the revenue training class.

224. Revenue assistant. An assistant or extra assistant commissioner is posted to every district, except shimla, as revenue assistant. An officer in charge of an outpost os the revenue assistant for his own sub-division, and during a general reassessment the extra assistant settlement officer is generally considered to be the revenue assistant of the district.

225. Duties of revenue assistant. The revenue assistant disposes of whatever share of magisterial work the district magistrate thinks fit to allot to him. But the bulk of his time must be given to the revenue business of the district, that is to say speaking broadly to the classes of work subscribed in this book. He is not available for the duties of treasury officer or subordinate be judge, and should never be given any share of civil judicial work

CAUTION ! Read separate para for Punjab and Haryana

226. Tours of deputy commissioners. Obviously a deputy commissioners cannot manage with success the great committed to his care without an intimate personal knowledge of every part of it. Much of the work, moreover, that is carried on can only be effective supervised by him on the spot. Above all it is impossible to keep in touch with the people unless he seeks frequent opportunities of that informal and frank intercourse with them which is only possible in camp. A deputy commissioner is therefore expected to pass a considerable part of each cold season on tour and to visit as far as possible, every part of his charge no. 67 nights. The work which must be performed at the headquarters of the district should be so arranged as to make this feasible.

 

227. Tours of deputy commissioners. Obviously a deputy commissioners cannot manage with success the great committed to his care without an intimate personal knowledge of every part of it. Much of the work, moreover, that is carried on can only be effective supervised by him on the spot. Above all it is impossible to keep in touch with the people unless he seeks frequent opportunities of that informal and frank intercourse with them which is only possible in camp. A deputy commissioner is therefore expected to pass a considerable part of each cold season on tour and to visit as far as possible, every part of his charge no. 67 nights. The work which must be performed at the headquarters of the district should be so arranged as to make this feasible.

 

228. Tour of assistant and extra assistant commissioners. During each touring season every assistant commissioner should be sit into camp in turn ,and as far as possible, extra assistant commissioners should be given opportunities of going into camp. The revenue assistant must spend the greater part of the cold weather in moving through the different tahsils, and it is essential that he should be on tour in the months during which the crop inspections of the spring and autumn harvests are in progress. Unless there are special reasons to the contrary, he should normally spent at least 120 days(including 90 nights) away from the headquarters during the year, of which 84 days should ordinary be between 1st October to 31st march and 36 days between 1st April to 30th September.

 

229.Tour of assistant and extra assistant commissioners. During each touring season every assistant commissioner should be sit into camp in turn ,and as far as possible, extra assistant commissioners should be given opportunities of going into camp. The revenue assistant must spend the greater part of the cold weather in moving through the different tahsils, and it is essential that he should be on tour in the months during which the crop inspections of the spring and autumn harvests are in progress. Unless there are special reasons to the contrary, he should normally spent at least 100 days(including 50 nights)away from the headquarters during the year, of which 63 days should ordinary be between 1st October and 31st march and 27 days between 1st April and 30th September.

 

230.Instructions to be given to assistant going on tour. It rests with the deputy commissioner to arrange what parts of the district an assistant or extra assistant commissioner should visit, and to indicate the subjects, to which he should specially direct his attention. Before he starts he should be given a good detailed map of the tact through which he is to pass with a skeleton map on which to mark the line of his route, and a written memorandum of instructions. The last may be very brief, except in the case of a newly-joined assistant. It should contain among other things, a detail of the expenditure on public works and takavi had of wells, the assessment of which has been remitted under the rules given in paragraph 558 of this manual, during the past year in the tract to be visited so that the works which have been constructed, or repaired or fallen out of use may be inspected. The first tour of a young assistant commissioner is the best in the company of the deputy commissioner himself and later he should be sent on short tours with the revenue assistant and tahsildar and then alone.

 

231. Chief object of tour. The chief object be to kept in view by an officer when in camp s to become acquainted with the people himself, and to give them an opportunity of becoming acquainted with him. For this purposes it is necessary to see the people in their own villages, to encourage their visits and talk with them frankly so as to ascertain their thoughts ans. feelings, the matters in which they are chiefly interested and the manner in which they regard them.

 

232. Advantage of local enquiry in revenue cases. It is generally adjustable to decide many revenue cases on the spot. When these are mere matters of the routine, and present no difficulty, they are perhaps better settled in office then elsewhere. But there are many cases, for example contested partitions, which for their right decision nay depend almost entirely on local peculiarities, and these can obviously be investigated better on the spot then elsewhere. As regards disputes about land and rent, while it is difficult, owing to local feuds, to get at the truth anywhere there is most hope of doing so in the village than in the district court house.

 

233. Inspection of alluvian and dilution returns and of village records. The inspection of alluvion and diluvion returns, and of the village records prepared by petwards and kanungos should be done locally. Attention should be directed to the questions weather the prescribed paper and registers ave been prepared in accordance with the rules and circular orders on the subject, whether they are complete to the date and whether the entries correctly represent the facts to which they relate.

 

234. Enquiry into management of government forests. Where there are government forests, their condition should be ascertained, the methods of management should be enquired into and attention should be paid to the relations between the forests establishment and the people. Forest management is often regarded by the people as a grievance, and there are undoubtedly many points of detail in which local enquiries alone may bring proper understanding. But all matters of this kind require to be very carefully and discreetly handled and should not be taken o without sufficient reason. All roadside groves and avenues should receive attention.

 

235. Ascertainment of characters of Indian subordinates. It is a matter of great importance to learn what character is borne by the tahsildar and naib-tahsildar and by the subordinate Indian officials in the tahsil. As regards subordinate officials, there is usually no harm in making direct enquiries from respectable persons. But great care must be taken to preserve the dignity of an official of the rank of a tahsildar, and to question the people of his own tahsil as to his conduct would generally be indiscreet. But, if an officer is freely accessible to people of all classes, hints will be dropped and matters will be brought to his notice from which he can gradually form a very good idea of the estimation in which the tahsildar is held.

 

236. Enquiry into general state of tract visited. The general condition of the tract should come under review. The principal points for enquiry are the following:-

(a)   crop-are those on the fraud and good condition? What has been the history of previous three or four harvests ?have any new varieties been introduced /

(b)  cultivation and irrigation- are they contracting of expanding? Is takavi freely taken for the construction of wells?

(c)   People- is the population increasing of falling off? What is its conditions as regards health ? are owners holding becoming unduly small by sub-division? is much land changing hands ? if so, what is the reason ? and who are the principal purchasers and mortgagees ?

(d)  Lives stock – is it increasing of diminishing ? and what is its condition ? how are the well cattle proured ? and what do they usually cost if not home-bred ? is there any sale of surplus stock ?

(e)   Land revenue-what proportion does the assessment bear to the value of the produce? is its distribution over estates and holdings equitable ? are collections easily made or are coercive processes necessary ? have there been any large remission and suspensions ? and, if so, why ? what is the prospect of recovering the land revenue under suspension ?

 

237. There are many other matters which an officer has to look into when on tour which do not fall within the scope of this manual, such for example as education, co-operation, sanitary measures, vaccination, the state of crime and the conduct of the people, the exercise arrangements and the extent to which smuggling and illicit distillation prevail. All than as, dispensaries and schools should be carefully inspected, and roads, rest-houses, sarais and encamping-grounds should be examined, and their condition noted. If there are co-operative societies their working should be enquired into.

 

CAUTION : Read separate para for Punjab and Haryana

 

238. Inspection of tahsil officers. When an officer halts at the headquarters of a tahsil, he should inspect the tahsildar’s office. Every tahsil office should be thoroughly overhauled every six months. The deputy commissioner should himself inspect it at least once a year. If he cannot make the second inspection himself, he should direct the revenue assistant, or some other experienced assistant or extra assistant commissioners, to make it for him. The scrutiny should include all branches of work-judicial treasury, stamps, excise, takavi, land revenue and the kanungo’s record. Special attention should be given to the examination of the records of rights and the agricultural registers and of the accounts relating to the deferent branches of revenue. As to the latter, the inspecting officer should ascertain whether they are regularly kept up and without any unnecessary resort to coercive processes. The causes of all outstanding balances should be traced. Particular attention should always be paid to the running register of miscellaneous revenue. A searching scrutiny of tehsil accounts on the spot os far more likely to detect irregularities and prevent their recurrence than fifty calls for written explanations from the district office. Even if an officer had no other duties to perform, it would be difficult for him to overhaul the work of a tehsil thoroughly in a single day. A perfunctory inspection is worse than useless and will merely encourage the establishment of continued irregularities and malpractice’s which have escaped detection. A tour should therefore be so arranged as to allow of a halt of several days at the headquarters of a tehsil. If this is not possible, it is best to take up one or more branches of work and examine them thoroughly, and to leave the rest for a future occasion. Tehsil in section can sometimes be done most thoroughly in the hot season. Through ordinary camping is out of the question, there is nothing to prevent an officer from spending some time at each tahsil headquarters.

 

239. Inspection of tehsil officers halts at the headquarters of a tahsil, he should inspect the Tehsildar’s office. Every tahsil office should be thoroughly overhauled every six months. The sub divisional officer(civil)will cinduct inspetion of the tahsil office under his charge after close of Kharif harvest while that of the other tahsil of the same dialect after the close of Rabi harvest of the same year. The Deputy commissioner should himself inspect to at least once a year. If he cannot make the second inspection himself, he should direct the Revenue assistant, or some other experienced Assistant pr Extra Assistant Commissioner to make it for him. The scrotum should include all branches of work-judicial treasury, stamps, excise, takavi land revenue and the kanungo’s record of rights and the agricultural registers and of the accounts relating to the different branches of revenue. As to the latter the inspecting officer should ascertain whether they are regularly kept up and whether the amounts due to Government are punctually realized, and without any unnecessary resort to coercive processes. The causes of all outstanding balances should be traced. Particular attention should always be paid to the running register of miscellaneous revenue. A searching scrutiny of tehsil accounts on the spot os far more likely to detect irregularities and prevent their recurrence then fifty calls for written explanations from the district office. Even of an officer had no other duties to perform ,it would no difficult for him to overhaul the work of a tahsil thoroughly in a single say. A perfunctory inspection is worse than useless and will merely encourage the establishment of continued irregularities and malpractice which have escaped detection. A tour should therefore be so arranged as to allow of halt of several day sat the headquarters of a tahsil. If this is not possible, it is best to take up in or more branches of work and examine them thoroughly and to leave the rest for a future occasion. Tahsil inspection can sometimes be done mone thoroughly in the hot season. Though ordinary camping from spending some time at each tahsil headquarters.

 

240. Diaries of assistant and extra assistant commissioners. Assistant commissioners, European Extra assistants and Indian Extra Assistants under training who know English sufficiently well, while on tour, are required to keep a diary. It must be written up in the spot from day to day, or every short intervals during the tour, and must not take the shape of a report or narrative prepared at the and of the tour. The order will be chronological and not by

Subject. The diary should be written on half-margin, and attention should be paid to the legibility of the writing. In order that it may be really useful, and that my practical suggestions contained in it may receive due attentions, it should be as concise as possible, and all unnecessary discussions on the theoretical subjects and remarks on the ordinary incidents of travelling should be avoided. Marginal references starting the subject matter of each paragraph should be inserted. The dairy should be forwarded weekly to the collector of inspection and remarks. At the close of the tour the memorandum furnished by the collector should be attached to it, and a rough sketch map of the route taken should also be appended. The conclusions drawn from the materials collected should be embodied in a brief general note on the state of the tracts visited, which should be form an appendix to the diary. The papers, thus put together, and submitted to the commissioner, who forward, for the perusal of the financial commissioners, and diaries which he considered deserving of special notice, and the financial commissioners lay before government those which in their opinion are worthy of special commendation. The commissioner is empowered to exempt senior assistants, who have held charge of a district, and assistant commissioner in charge of sub-divisions, from keeping up a diary while tour, but this exemption should rarely be made in the case of young officers as the necessity of writing a dear develops powers of observation. Indian extra assistant commissioner not under training should keep such notes of the work done while on tour as the deputy commissioner may prescribe.

 

241.Time-scale pay of tahsildars and naib-tahsildars. The time scale pay of tahsildars is RS. 200-10-270-10-350, with an efficiency bar at Rs. 270. There is also a selection grade of tour posts at Rs. 400 and of eight posts at Rs. 375 per mensem each. The time-scale pay of naib-tahdsildars is rs.80-5-140—7 ½-185 with an efficiency bar at Rs. 140.

 

242.Appointment, etc., of tahsilders and naib-tahsildes, Tahsildera are appointed by the financial commissioner and naib-tehsildars by the commissioner of the division. Tahsildars may be dismissed by the Financial commissioner and naib-tahsildar by the commissioner. For full instructions as to the qualifications required, the examinations which canidares muster pass, promotions, etc. the Financial commissioner standing order No.12 may be consulted. The local Government may direct to the financial commissioner to appoint a person not eligible under the rules to be either a tahsildar or naib-tahsildar, but it is a concision of such an appointment that the haled shall, within two years, pass the prescribed examination.

 

243.Settlement training of naib-tahsildars and naib-tahsildar can-didates. Any naib-tahsildar who has passed the tahsildar’s examination may be sent by the commissioner of the division for a year’s training in a district under reassessment. The commissioner may also require any candidate for the past of naib-tahsildatr to undergo the practical training in revenue work prescribed by paragraph 7 of financial commissioners standing order No 12 in a district under settlement.

 

244.Duties of tahsildar. The duties of the tahsildar within his tahsil are almost manifold as those of the Deputy commissioner within his district. He is not expected to hear any civil suits, but his magisterial work is important. In all matters of administration he must be, within his own charge ,the Deputy commissioner’s principal agent and his power for good or evil is very great. His revenue duties are so important that there has occasionally been a tendency to make them all in all. But it must be admitted that his efficiency, more than that of am other affaire in the district, except the Revenue assistant, depends on capacity for revenue work. No degree of excellence in other respects can alone for failure properly to direct and control the patwari and kanungo agency, to collect the revenue punctually where the people are climate of season, which renders suspensions of remissions necessary, and to carry out, within his own sphere the other duties connected with land administration which are described in this book.

 

245.Division of tahsil for inspection work. For inspection work and the attestation of mutations in records, the estates of each tahsil are divided yearly between the tahsil date and the naib-tahsildar. The portions if the tahsil allotted should be changed every year on October 1st so that the responsibility of the tehsildar for the whole of his charge may not be impaired. It is within the direction of the deputy commissioner to postpone redistribution for special reasons, such as the prompt disposal of pending revenue work.

 

246.Extra naib-tahsildars for mutation work. In the cold weather extra niab-tahsildars are sometimes posted to districts where mutation work is very heavy. These men should not be employed as general assistants to the tahsildar, but should be required to devote the whole of their time to the attestation of mutations. At the same time, the tahsildar and the naib-tahsildar should not be relieved of all their mutation work. The best plan is to transfer the whole mutation work of certain zails or kanugo’s circles to the extra naib-tahsildar.

 

247.Tours of tahsildars and naib-tahsildars. Tahsildars and naib-tahsildars should spend alternate fort nights in camp during the seven months from the beginning of October to the end of April. During the rest of year systematic touring is impossible, but an active tahsildar will take opportunities management of his charge cannot be efficient unless he has a through knowledge of his village.

 

248.Plan of tours should be drawn up. A plan of cold –weather inspection work should be drawn up, through the duties of a tahsildar are so multifarious and he is liable to so many unexpected calls upon his time that it is impossible to adhere to it strictly. If the work is properly laid out beforehand, the tahsildar and the naib-tahsildar should be able in the seven months of camping to make between them a through security of every kanungo’s and patwari’s work and to visit most of the estates in the tahsil. Deputy commissioner should impress on their subordinates that perfunctory inspections are worse than useless, and that a man who has done his best will not be blamed because he has failed to see every village. A task which in many cases, is impossible. The tahsildar or naib-tahsildar, when on tour, should always carry with him a small-scale sketch map of his charge, showing village boundaries and sites, main roads, and canals, and the limits of zails and of kanungos and patwaris circles. He should also have with him a list of all takavi loans grante in the tract to be visited.

 

249.Inspection of estate. On visiting on estate the tahsildar should attest the mutations. He should also inspect the village site and lands, if he is not already familiar with them, and should examine the village revenue registers and note points for enquiry. He should then discuss the condition and circumstances of the estate with the land owners, the village officers, the zaildar and the kangungo paying special attention special attention to the cause of any large amount of alienation and the reasons for any difficulty experienced in collecting the revenue. He should take the opportunity of seeing any works for which takavi has been given. The tahsildar’s hairiest inspection work is referred to in chapter ix

 

250.Revenue work to be dealt with in village to which it legates. In order to avoid taking agriculturists away from their homes, all revenue work, especially disputed partition, lambardari and muafi cases should, as far as possible, be dealt with at the village to which they relate. By this means the attendance of all the parties will be secured, and the facts of each case will be easily ascertained. In the case of estates for which a detailed jamalndi is to be drawn up during the agricultural year mutation work must be disposed of in the village itself. In there cases, the naib-tahsildar or tahsildar, if he cannot conveniently visit the estate, may pass orders on its mutations at any other place within the patwari’s circle.

“Revenue officers should attest mutations according to priority based on the date of try of report in the patwari’s diary. In cases where a mutation cannot be attested interim orders must in variably be recorded.”

 

CHAPTER VI

Powers of revenue officers

 

251.Powers of revenue officers. There are five classes of revenue officers: the financial commissioner, the commissioner, the collector, the assistant collector of the 1st grade, and the assistant collector of the 2nd grade. The deputy commissioner of a district is by virtue of his office its collector a revenue officer who is transferred from one district to another retains the powers with which he was invested in the former district.

 

252.Powers of financial commissioner. There are many matters on which the financial commissioner is empowered by the land revenue and tenancy acts to make rules, but these do not take effect till they have been sanctioned by the local government. There are also a number of executive proceedings regarding which his special orders required. For example he fixes the amounts and dates of the installments by which land revenue is paid, and if, to recover an error, the extreme step of annulling the assessment of an estate or holding, or of selling it outright has to be taken his sanction must first be obtained.

 

253.Power of commissioner. While the land revenue and tendency acts confer ample powers of general control on commissioners, there is practically no particular matter which they can legally deal with on their own initiative, or for the very few exception is that sales of immovable property for the recovery of arrears are not complete will they have received their confirmation.

 

254.Powers of collector and assistant collection. The land revenue act declares that certain things must be done and certain orders must be passed by the collector and that other things may be done, and other orders may be passed, by “a revenue officer” there are but two cases in which any difference between the powers of the two grades of assistant collectors is mentioned in the act. Section 126 provides that proceedings relating to the partition of land must be taken an assistant collectors of the 2nd grade do not of compelling parties before them to submit certain matters to arbitration. But by section 10 the local government has power ,where the act does not expressly by what class of revenue officers any function to be discharged, to determine the matter by notification, and this was done soon after the enactment came into force. The class of revenue officer which can dispose of the enactment came into force. The class of revenue officer which can dispose of the various applications and proceedings which arise under the tenancy act is stated in its 76th section. It will be observed that in the distribution of business, there is given no distinction made between the powers of a collector and those if an assistant collector of the 1st grade. But the application of a landlord for leave to take an improvement on the holding of a tenant with a right of occupancy must be presented to the collector, and he alone can enhance the rent after the improvement has been made and reduce it again after it has ceased to exist.

 

255.Enquiries by subordinate officers. It would be absolutely impossible for superior revenue officers, and especially for the deputy commissioner, to dispose of the numerous matters on which their orders are required, if the proceedings from first to last had to be held before themselves. Provision has therefore been made that “a revenue officer may refer any case which he is empowered to dispose of ….to another revenue officer for investigation and report, and may decide the case upon the report” this useful power must be exercised with discretion. In matters of any importance the parties who will be directly affected by an order should be present when it is passed, and should be head as far as is necessary. However unpalatable a decision may be to a man, it loses half its sting if he feels that his case has been fully understood and carefully considered.

 

256.Exclusion of jurisdiction of civil courts. Civil courts have no jurisdiction in respect of any matters of which revenue officers are empowered by the land revenue and tenancy acts to dispose of.

 

257.Execution by revenue officers of certain orders of civil courts. On the other hand, any order which a civil or criminal court issues for the attachment, sale, or delivery of land, must be executed through the collector or a revenue officer appointed by the collector for that purpose. The rules on the subject will be found in the financial commissioner’s standing order no. 64 and the rules and orders of the high court, volume 1, chapter xii-order xxi, civil procedure code. When the produce of land is attached no obstacle must be placed in the way of the person to whom it belongs reaping, gathering or storing it, and every care must be taken for its preservation. As executing of the orders of civil and criminal courts the function of a revenue officer is purely ministerial. He is not concerned with the priority of the order passed. But if it is on the face it illegal, if, for example, it directs the collector to sell land belonging to a member of an agricultural tribe, he will be justified in pointing this out to the civil court and, if necessary, to the commissioner.

 

258.Functions of collector under section 72 of the civil procedure code. Under the provisions of section 72 of the civil procedure code (act v of 1908) a court may authorize the collector to arrange for the satisfaction of a decree by the temporary alienation or management of land belonging to a judgement-debtor. The rules on the subject are quoted in the financial commissioner’s standing order no. 64. Any alienation approved of would naturally take the form of one or other of the kinds of the mortgage allowed by act xiii of 1990. Where the judgement –debtor is deprived of cultivating occupancy of the transferred land enough should be excluded from the transfer to furnish at least a bare subsistence for himself and his family.

 

259.Procedure of revenue officers. The produce of revenue officers is mainly governed by sections 18-23, 127-135 and 152 of the land revenue act, and by a law rules issued under various sections of the land revenue and tenancy acts. Any number of tenants cultivating in the same estate may be made parties to proceedings under chapter iii of the tenancy act, but no order or decree must be made affecting any of them who has not had an opportunity of appearing being heard.

 

260.Arbitration. Sections 127-135 of the land revenue act relate to arbitration which may be employed with the consent of parties in any proceeding, and in a few proceeding without their consent. A revenue officer is not bound by the reward, but may modify it or reject it altogether. Whatever his decision may be, it is open to appeal, just as if there had been no arbitration. There are no provisions about arbitration in the tenancy act, but a rule under it has made the provisions on the subject in the land revenue act applicable to most of the proceedings under the tenancy act.

 

261.Legal practitioners. Legal practitioners may appear in proceedings before revenue officers, and law present applications on beheld of their clients. Through a person chooses to be represented by a pleader his own attendance may also be required, and no formal pleading will be head except in lambardari, zaildari, mafi, mutation, and partition cases. A revenue agent cannot, without the permission of the presiding officer, take any part in the examination of witness, or address to him any argument on behalf of his client. The fees of a legal practitioner are not allowed as costs in any proceeding without an express order of the revenue officer passed for reasons which he is bound to record. Legal practitioners cannot appear in proceedings under the Punjab alienation of land Act. (xiii of 1990)

Hon'ble Revenue Minister

 

 

 

 

 

Hon’ble Minister-In-Charge, Department of Revenue, Rehabilitation and Disaster Management

Sh. Hardeep Singh Mundian


 

Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Revenue, Rehabilitation and Disaster Management

Sh. Anurag Verma, IAS

What's New

Regarding the simplification of the language used during the registration of property (Model Sale Deed Format)
Regarding Appointment of Tehsildar candidates in Registrar B2 dated 12-09-2023
Regarding Fee Remit (PIDB, SIC etc.)
Rechecking Result of Departmental Examination of N-Tehsildar
Hon'ble CM Punjab launched e-services i.e. Grievance Redressal ,E-stamping and Digital Execution of Documents, Home Delivery of copy of Jamabandi (Fard), Online recording of Khasra Girdawari (e-Girdawari), Linkage of phone and email with Jamabandi
The Punjab Abadi Deh (Record of Rights) Rules, 2021
Meeting regarding Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) - stands postponed
The Registration (Punjab Amendment) Act. 2020
The Punjab Land Revenue (Amendment) Act. 2020
Resumption of Registration Work, dated 06-05-2020
Regarding Additional Stamp Duty
Notification dated 30-01-2019_regarding amendment in Schedule I-A of Central Act 2 of 1899 : The Indian Stamp (Punjab Amendment) Ordinance, 2019
Online Registration (NGDRS) is implemented in all Sub Registrar Offices of 22 Districts of State of Punjab