VAKHATSINGHJI VAJESINHJI Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These are 12 petitions under Article 227 of the Constitution directed against the decision of the Revenue Tribunal deciding the claims of the petitioners made by them under the provisions of the Bombay Taluqdari Tenure Abolition Act 1949 The Revenue Tribunal has by a common judgment disposed of all the appeals filed by the petitioners against the awards made by the Special Deputy Collector Ahmedabad and has dealt with the points of general nature common to those appeals and dealt with each appeal separately in the same judgment. The learned advocates appearing before us in these petitions have argued these matters on the same lines and therefore we propose to dispose of the present petitions by a common judgment.

(2.) The petitioners are the ex-Talukdars of certain villages in the district of Ahmedabad and their tenures were abolished by the Bombay Taluqdari Tenure Abolition Act 1949 Section 3 of the said Act provides that the Taluqdari tenure shall wherever it prevails be deemed to have been abolished and save as expressly provided by or under the provisions of the Act all incidents of the said tenure attaching to any land comprised in a Taluqdari estate shall be deemed to have been extinguished. Section 5 of that Act provides for the liability of Taluqdari land to payment of land revenue and by virtue of section 6 all public roads etc. are to vest in the Government and all rights held by a Taluqdar in such property as mentioned in section 6 shall be deemed to have been extinguished. Section 7 of the Act provides for compensation to Taluqdars for extinguishment of rights under sec. 6 and section 14 provides for the method of compensation for the extinguishment or modification of any other rights not provided for by section 7. Both sections 7 and 14 provide for application to be made to the Collector for payment of compensation in respect of the extinguishment of the rights as provided in those sections and the Collector is required to pass an award deciding the claims made by the Taluqdars as aforesaid. The present petitioners filed claims before the Special Dist. Collector who has passed awards in each else against which the petitioners filed appeals before the Revenue Tribunal which as we have already stated decided these appeals by a common judgment. It is in respect of this decision of the Revenue Tribunal that the petitioners have preferred the present petitions under Article 227 of the Constitution of India.

(3.) In order to appreciate the contentions of the petitioners it will be necessary to state the essential characteristics of the Taluqdari Tenure and to briefly recapitulate the historical back-ground of the Bombay Taluqdari Tenure Abolition Act 1949 The taluqdari tenure was one of the several varieties of the old Taluqdari tenures existing in Gujarat and has passed through many vicissitudes both in respect of the rights and incidents attached to it and concessions made from time to time by Government. In Chapter V of Agrarian Reforms in Bombay by G. D. Patel certain pertinent remarks of Mr. Reeves have been quoted: