MOLUGU LAKSHMINARASIMHACHARYULU Vs. MARISETTI RATNAM AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) UNTIL 1936 a grant by a landholder of land constituted an estate within the meaning of the Madras Estates Land Act, 1908, only if it was a grant of the melwaram and in favour of a person who was not the owner of the kudiwaram. The Madras Estates Land (Third Amendment) Act, 1936, made an important alteration in the law. It provided that if the grant was of a whole village, the land comprised in it would constitute an estate. It did not matter whether it was a grant of both the warams or of only one waram, nor did it matter who was the owner of the kudiwaram. In Ademma v. : AIR1943Mad187 a Division Bench, of which one of us was a member, held that a grant could not be regarded as a grant of the whole village when there were already minor inams and a portion of the village had been reserved by the landlord. The decision was followed in other cases. This resulted in the Legislature amending the Act further. By the Madras Estates Land (Amendment) Act, 1945, an explanation was added to Sub -section (d) of Clause (2) of Section 3 of the Act and numbered Explanation (1). It reads as follows:

(2.) BY reason of the amendment made in 1945, it is now the law that a grant constitutes an estate if it is expressed to be of a named village, irrespective of whether some of the lands in the village are already held under inam or service grants or whether there has been a reservation of part of the village for communal purposes. The test is whether the grant purports to be of a particular village.

(3.) THE finding of the Subordinate Judge that the grant was not a grant of a whole village is not binding on this Court, because it is not a finding of fact. It is a finding based on the Subordinate Judge's interpretation of certain documents. In Sherfuddin v. Kairoon Bi, (1044) 2 M.L.J. 56 :, I.L.R. 1945 Mad. 194 this Court held that an inference to be drawn from entries in registers was a question of law. Somayya, J., had the right to form his own opinion as to the effect of the entries in the inam registers and to construe the grant. We are in the same position and we agree with the judgment under appeal.