VIRENDRA SINGH Vs. STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a petition under Article 32 of the Constitution. It raises an important question about the post-Constitutional rights to property situate in Indian States that were not part of British India before the Constitution but which acceded to the Dominion of India shortly before the Constitution and became an integral part of the Indian Republic after it.

(2.) The States in question here are Charkhari and Sarila. In British days they were independent States under the paramountcy of the British Crown. They acknowledged the British Crown as the surerain power and owed modified allegiance to it, but none to the Government of India.

(3.) In 1947 India obtained Independence and became a Dominion by reason of the Indian Independence Act of 1947. The suzerainty of the British Crown even the Indian States lapsed at the same time because of section 7 of that Act. Immediately after, all but three of the Indian States acceded to the new Dominion by executing Instruments of accession. Among them were the two States with which we are concerned. The new Dominion of India was empowered to accept these accessions by a suitable amendment in the government of India Act,1935. The sovereignty of the acceding States was expressly recognised and safeguarded. The operative words of the Instrument of Accession which each Ruler signed were