MANNA LAL Vs. COLLECTOR OF JHALAWAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellants are traders of Jhalawar. Respondent No. 1, the Collector of Jhalawar, served on the appellants a notice under S. 6 of the Rajasthan Public Demands Recovery Act, 1952, hereafter called the Act, for the recovery from them as a public demand, of Rs. 2,24,607/6/6 said to be due on account of loans taken by them from the Jhalawar State Bank. The appellants filed a petition under S. 8 of the Act contending, among other things, that the amount sought to be recovered from them was not a public demand. Respondent No. 1 appears to have called upon the appellants to prove that it was not a public demand. The appellants without proceeding further before respondent No. 1, filed a petition in the High Court of Rajasthan for the issue of a writ quashing the proceedings under the Public Demands Recovery Act. The High Court dismissed the petition but granted a certificate that the case was fit for an appeal to this Court. Hence the present appeal.

(2.) The only question raised in this appeal is whether any loan due to the Jhalawar State Bank could be recovered as a public demands. A "public demand" within the meaning of the Act is "any money payable to the Government or to a department or an officer of Government under or in pursuance of a written instrument or agreement". The Government here means that Government of Rajasthan for the Act was passed in 1952 by the Rajasthan State Legislature. The question then is whether money due to the Jhalawar State Bank, is money payable to the Government of Rajasthan.

(3.) Now, the Jhalawar State Bank was started in 1932. At that time Jhalawar was a ruling State. Sometime in or about April, 1948 the State of Jhalawar, along with nine other ruling States of Rajputana, integrated and formed the United State of Rajasthan under a convenant executed by the Rulers of these States. One of the articles of this convenant provided, "All the assets and liabilities of the covenanting States shall be the assets and liabilities of the Unites State." Subsequently, on March 30, 1949, the States of Bikaner, Jaipur, Jaisalmer and Jodhpur joined the United State of Rajasthan. On the promulgation of the Constitution of India, the United State of Rajasthan became a Part B State in the Indian Union. The assets of the previous ruling State of Jhalawar which had earlier vested in the United State of Rajasthan, thereupon passed to and devolved upon the State of Rajasthan in the Indian Union.