BAXI MIR VAHIDUDDINKHAN Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a petition for a writ of certiorari to quash and set aside the order of the Gujarat Revenue Tribunal dated February 27, 1951 which held that the claim for compensation filed by the petitioner in respect of the extinguishment of a grant in his favour fell under Section 15 of the Bombay Merged Territories and Miscellaneous Alienations Abolition Act, 1955, (hereinafter referred to as the Miscellaneous Alienations Abolition Act) and for a mandamus directing the State of Gujarat to continue to pay to the petitioner and his descendants the sum of Rs. 12,522 annually, and, in the alternative, for a mandamus directing the State of Gujarat to pay to the petitioner as compensation the amount of Rs. 4,17,400, being the capitalised value of the said grant of Rs. 12,522 which came to be extinguished under Section 4 of the aforesaid Act.

(2.) The petitioner is the descendant of one Mir Nazmuddinkhan who was the cousin of the Nawab of Surat and the Baxi of his forces in or about the year 1800 A.D. It appears from the documents filed by the petitioner that in 1776, the then Nawab granted Muglai Hak or assigned revenue in favour of the said Nazmuddinkhan in respect of certain villages situate in the present Gandevi and Chorashi Talukas and certain other villages. On May 12, 1800 a compact and a convention was made between the said Nawab and the East India Company to which the said Nazmuddinkhan affixed his seal by way of allegtation whereunder the administration and management of the city of Surat and the territories, places and other dependancies thereof was delivered over to the Company. By a Sanad dated June 22, 1800 signed by Jonathan Duncan, the then Governor of Bombay, the Company agreed to pay to the said Nazmuddinkhan and his descendants a sum of Rs. 24,000 in Broach rupees payable in quarterly instalments, besides an amount of Rs. 6,000 per annum payable during his lifetime. We are told by Mr. Joshi, who appears for the petitioner, that the petitioner is not able to trace the original Sanad and has, therefore, produced a copy of a translation thereof. The copy translation is the one which the petitioner produced from his records before the Deputy Collector, Navsari, along with his application for compensation. We find, however, that this translation differs in certain particulars from a translation which was produced in an earlier litigation which went up to the Privy Council and of which the extracts are quoted in the Privy Council decision in Gulabdas v. Collector of Surat, (1879) ILR 3 Bom 186. Though the differences in the two translations are not very material, we propose to rely on the Sanad as reproduced by R.N. Joglekar in his Alienation Manual, (1921 Edition) at page 238. The Sanad, as found in that volume, after reciting the aforesaid compact and convention, provides as follows:

(3.) The said sum of Rs. 24,000, when con verted into Company rupees, was sellled at Rs. 22,406 which consisted of three items, (1) Rs. 12,522 to be paid per year as Muglai Hak fiom the land revenues of the said villages situated in Gandevi Mahal, (2) Rs. 2,592-2-10 to be paid yearly as Muglai Hak from the land revenue of certain villages situated in Chorashi Mahal, and (3) Rs. 7,290-15-0 as political pension to be paid from the Company's treasury at Surat in the form of a monthly allowance of Rs. 607-9-0. Over and above these three sums aggregating to Rs. 22,405, the Baxi was also to be paid Rs. 6,000 a year for life as a pension as a particular mark of the favourable opinion of the Company's Government and the respect for the character of the said Baxi In this petition, we are concerned only with the grant of Rs. 12,522 payable as aforesaid in lieu of the land revenue of what may be called the Gandevi villages forming part of the original jagirs granted to the Baxi in the year 1776