PROMOD CHANDRA DEB BADA KUMAR PRATAP GANGADEB HER HIGHNESS MAHA RAJMATA SURATARANGINI DEBI Vs. STATE OF ORISSA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners in these Writ Petitions, under Art. 32 of the Constitution, complain of interference with their rights under the several Khor Posh grants, and pray for writs of certiorari or mandamus and further orders or directions to the respondents for the enforcement of their alleged lights. In Writ Petition No. 79 of 1957, the first respondent is the State of Orissa, and the Union of India is the second respondent. In all the other Writ Petitions, the State of Orissa is the sole respondent. As most of the questions of law relating to the interpretation of the Constitution, or other laws hereinafter to be referred to are common, the cases have been heard together. But in order to appreciate the points arising in these cases, it is necessary to state the, facts of each case separately.

(2.) In Writ Petition 79 of 1957, the petitioner is the younger brother of the present Raja of Talcher, which was an independent sovereign state before its merger. It was later incorporated in the State of Orissa. The Talcher state was a sovereign State of the Rajabahadur of Talcher, under the paramountcy of the British Government, before India attained Independence. As such a sovereign, the Rajah had absolute powers of disposal of the properties comprised in the State. The succession to the Rulership of the State is governed by the Mitakshara law, according to the rule of lineal primogeniture. The petitioner is a citizen of India and is the only younger brother of the present Raja of Talcher. The petitioner's father, the previous Ruler of Talcher, died in 1945 and was succeeded by the petitioner's elder brother, the present Raja of Talcher. According to immemorial and long established custom of the State as also according to the Hindu Law of lineal primogeniture, the junior members of the family of the Rulers, for the time being, were entitled to and were provided with suitable maintenance, either land or in money, to enable them to maintain themselves in accordance with their status as members of the Ruler's family. The grants of land, or its equivalent in money, or partly in land and partly in money, used to called Khanja or Khor Posh grants, and the grantees were known as Khanjadars or Khorposhdars. The nature and conditions of such grants have been laid down in Order 31 of the Rules, Regulations and Privileges of Khanjadars and Khorposhdars. Those "Rules, Regulations of Talcher etc. (1937)" state the law of the State. In accordance with the law aforesaid, the Khorposh grants made by the Ruler, for the time being, became the absolute private property of the grantee, being a male or a female member of the family of the grantor.

(3.) The petitioner was born in 1903, and in the same year the petitioner's father, who was the then Ruler of the State of Talcher, made a grant in perpetuity to the petitioner of 5 villages specified in the Schedule to the petition. The said grant conveyed to the petitioner full proprietary rights in the villages aforesaid. By an order, dated March 31, 1912, the Ruler aforesaid passed an order to the effect that the income of the 5 villages granted to the petitioner, as aforesaid, be collected by the State Officials and deposited in the State Treasury, and the petitioner should be paid in cash the equivalent of the income from the villages aforesaid, amounting to Rs. 5926 odd. By a subsequent order, dated September 8, 1929, the Ruler aforesaid directed the Settlement Officer, who was in charge of making the records up to date, to keep the aforesaid grant yielding a cash income of Rs. 5926 odd intact, to be enjoyed by the petitioner "in perpetuity under hereditary rights". The Ruler of the State, after making the necessary enquiries, directed, by his Order dated March 16, 1944, that the petitioner should be paid Rs. 6200 a year, as a cash allowance out of the State Treasury in lieu of the income from the villages granted to the petitioner, as aforesaid. Since then the petitioner was being paid regularly the allowance at the rate of Rs. 500 per month, till April 1949.