M.K. SUBBACHARIAR AND OTHERS Vs. STATE OF MADRAS, BY THE SECRETARY TO GOVERNMENT, REVENUE DEPARTMENT, FORT ST. GEORGE, MADRAS AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this batch of writs under Art. 226 of the Constitution of India, the constitutional validity of three Acts of the State Legislature are under challenge. These three Acts, the Madras Inam Estates (Abolition and Conversion into Ryotwari) Act (XXVI of 1963) the Madras Minor Inams (Abolition and Conversion into Ryotwari) Act, (XXX of 1963) and the Madras Leaseholds (Abolition and Conversion into Ryotwari) Act (XXVII of 1963), hereinafter referred to for convenience as Inam Estates Act, Minor Inams Act and Leaseholds Act respectively, are steps in the final phase of the series of legislation in carrying forward the country's policy of agrarian reforms, the first effective step having been taken so early as in 1948 when the Madras Estates (Abolition and Conversion into Ryotwari Act (XXVI of 1948) was passed. Under Act XXVI of 1948, the intermediaries in the Zamindari and under -tenure estates and whole inam villages in which the grant consisted of Melvaram alone were abolished and the ryotwari settlement introduced. The objective of the three present enactments is the introduction of ryotwari settlement in respect of lands held under certain inam and leasehold tenures under the Government, left out in the Estates Abolition Act. The pattern of legislation in the matter of abolition and conversion and providing for ryotwari settlement is more or less in the line of Madras Act XXVI of 1948, a departure from the Act being made wherever necessitated by reason of difference in tenures. Though the petitions now before us fall under three groups, as the main plank of attack as to the constitutional validity is common, they all have been heard together. The principal grievance of the petitioners is that the provisions relating to the payment of compensation are so framed as to make the compensation illusory. The provisions regarding the grant of ryotwari pattas are termed arbitrary and discriminatory and as having no relation to the tenures under which lands have been held. Particular attack is made in regard to the provision in the Acts, for wiping of arrears of rent. The petitioners charge the Legislature with committing a fraud on power to deprive the absolute proprietors of lands of their rights in property and the rents in arrears under the guise of agrarian reforms for the abolition of intermediaries and settling the lands on the actual cultivators. Some of the petitioners are religions and charitable endowments and some of them are mutts ; and it is contended for these religious institutions that the effect of the Acts would result in the violation of Arts. 25 and 26 of the Constitution. It is urged that Art. 31 -A of the Constitution cannot protect the Acts in question ; nor Art. 31 (2) stand in the way of judicial scrutiny of the provisions relating to compensation. The State seeks to sustain the validity of the Acts by reference to Entry 18 and Entry 45 in List II and Entry 42 in List III of Sch. VII to the Constitution and relies for protection from attacks based on Arts. 14, 19 and 31 of the Constitution, on Art. 31 -A, while at the same time contending on the merits that the provisions in the Acts on all aspects are unimpeachable, fair and reasonable. It will be convenient to take up for consideration first, the Inam Estates Act (XXVI of 1963). Writ Petition Nos. 1457 and 1552 of 1956 are typical of the inams covered by the Act and a brief reference to the facts therein would be sufficient for our present purpose. Writ Petition No. 2586 of 1965 is one of a group of writs relating to what the Act defines as Pudukkotta Inam Estates. The petitioner in Writ Petition No. 1457 of 1965 is a religious institution Abisheka Kattalai, Sri Thyagarajaswami Devasthanam, Tiruvarur, represented by Sri La Sri Ajapa Nateswara Pandara Sannadhi and the Executive Officer of the Devasthanam. The petitioner is the inamdar of the inam villages Elandavancheri, Palavoy, Thyagajapuram Kamalalayam Kattalai, Chandrasekaranpettai, Karimbiyur, Thottam, Ammakottalai and Vellapillaiyar Kattalai in Thanjavur District. These villages were made estates under the Madras Estates Land (Third Amendment) Act XVIII of 1936). In some of these villages -for instance in Thiagarajapuram -the entire lands are private lands. The villages were held on service tenures for Abishekam service to the presiding deity Lord Thiagarajaswami and other deities. With reference to the lands situated in Thiagarajapuram and Palavoy, as to their private character, there was a litigation which ended ultimately in compromise in the Supreme Court in Civil Appeal Nos. 141 to 143 of 1955. Under the compromise it was recognised that the lands were private and not ryotwari and that the tenants had no occupancy rights in them. The Devasthanam had to grant a lease of the suit wet and dry lands to the respondent in the said appeals for a period of 25 years beginning from 1st July, 1950, with an option for renewal in favour of the tenants for a further period of 25 years. Now these villages are notified as 'existing Inam Estates' under the aforesaid Act XXVI of 1963 on 15th March, 1965.

(2.) Writ Petition No. 1552 of 1965 relates to the Inam village Maniya Adur in Chidambaram Taluk, South Arcot District. In this case the grant was not of a whole village or a named village, and a portion of the village about 26 acres and odd have been retained by the grantor at the time of the original grant and subsequently granted to a mosque. The village did not become an estate under the provisions of the Estates Land Act (Third Amendment) Act XVIII of 1936. When the Government wanted to apply the provisions of the Madras Estates Land (Reduction of Rent) Act (XXX of 1947) to the suit village, the inamdar instituted a suit, O. S. No. 59 of 1954 on the file of the Subordinate Judge, Cuddalore, impleading the State as a party defendant, and therein a declaration was obtained that the village was not an estate as defined under S. 3(2)(d) of the Madras Land Act and that the Rent Reduction Act was not applicable to the village in question. There was an appeal by the State to this Court in A. S. No. 566 of 1955, and this Court on 5th January, 1959, confirmed the decision of the trial Court and held that the inam in question was not an estate. Now this village has also been included in the notification issued under S. 1(4) of the Inam Estates Abolition Act on 15th March, 1965. This village comes under the Act as a new inam estate', though it is only part of a village granted in inam and therefore not an "estate" as defined under the Madras Estates Land Act, 1908. Inam Nilayappatti, a Pudukkottai Inam estate, the subject of Writ Petition No. 2586 of 1965 had its origin in the grant of the village by a sovereign prince of Pudukkotti and the inam was subsequently settled in 1912 under the Pudukkottai Inam Settlement Rules of 1888. On the merger of the Pudukkottai State with the Indian Union, Madras Act XXIII of 1955, the Pudukkottai Settlement of loams Act, was passed providing for the recognition of inams granted, confirmed or recognised by the Pudukkottai Administration and Settlement of the Inams. The Special Officer, Inam settlement, Pudukkottai, found that Inam Nilayappatti and 81 other villages are whole inam iruwaram grants of villages. We may state that no special point was made with reference to Pudukkottai inams, as such.

(3.) The Inam Estates Act received the assent of the President on the 11th day of December, 1963, and was first published in the Fort St. George Gazette on the 1st of January, 1964. It extends to the whole of the State of Madras except the Shencottah taluk of the Tirunelveli District, the Kanyakumari District and the territories specified in the Second Schedule to the Andhra Pradesh and Madras (Alteration of Boundaries) Act, 1959. Under Sub -S. (4) of S. 1 of the Act certain provisions of the Act come into force immediately. The rest of the provisions were by notification published on 15th March, 1965, brought into force with effect from the 15th day of April, 1965, in respect of the Inam estates specified in the notification. The Act is made applicable to all inam estates and an inam estate is defined in S. 2(7) as meaning an 'existing inam estate or a new inam estate. An 'existing inam estate' is defined by S. 2(4) to mean an inam village which became an estate by virtue of the Madras Estates Land (Third Amendment) Act, 1036 (XVIII of 1936). A 'new inam estate' is defined to mean a 'part village inam estate' or a 'Pudukkottai Inam estate'. A part village inam estate is defined by S. 2(11) as a part of a village including a part of a village in the merged territory of Pudukkottai the grant of which has been made, confirmed or recognised by the Government notwithstanding that subsequent to the grant, such part has been partitioned among the grantees or the successors -in -title of the grantee or grantees. Explanation 1 to the definition is of importance. Under Explanation 1(a) where the grant of a part of a village as an inam it expressed to be a specified fraction of, or a specified number of shares in, a village, such part shall be deemed to be a part village inam estate notwithstanding that such grant refers also to the extent of such part in terms of acreage or cawnies, or of other local equivalent. Explanation 1(b) excludes from the definition of a part village inam estate, the area which forms the subject -matter of a great, where the grant as an inam is expressed to be only in terms of acreage or cawnies. Pudukkottai Inam estates are inam villages in the merged territory of Pudukkottai and set out in schedule to the Act. The consequence of a notification under the Act is set out in Chapter II. By S. 3(b) the entire inam estate (including all communal lands and porambokes, other non -ryoti lands, waste lands, pasture lands, forests, mines and minerals, quarries, rivers and streams, tank and irrigation works, fisheries and ferries) shall stand transferred to the Government and vest in them, free of all encumbrances, and the Madras Revenue Recovery Act, 1864, the Madras Cess Act, 1965 and all other enactments applicable to ryotwari areas are made applicable to the inam estates. There are provisions in the Act for survey and settlement operations and introduction of Ryotwari Settlement. S. 9 specifies the class of lands in respect of which the landholder would be entitled to ryotwari patta. S. 10 specifies the lands in respect of which a ryot is entitled to ryotwari patta. S. 11 provides for a case where no person is entitled to a ryotwari patta under S. 9 or S. 10. A ryotwari patta is granted under this Sec. on the basis of personal cultivation as detailed in the section. The provision relating to the payment of compensation is found under Chapter VI and by S. 23 compensation shall be determined for an inam estate as a whole and not separately for such of the interests therein. S. 24 provides for the determination of a basic annual sum and the compensation payable in respect of an inam estate except inam estate belonging to religious, educational and charitable institutions is by S. 31 made up of multiples of the basic annual sum, in a descending scale the multiplier going down with the increase in quantum of the basic annual sum. The basic annual sum by S. 25 is the aggregate of two sums, less certain deductions provided in S. 28; (1) the whole of the gross annual ryotwari demand in respect of all lands in the inam estate, in respect of which any person other than the landholder is entitled to a ryotwari patta as ascertained under S. 26 less the deduction specified therein, and (2) the whole of the average net annual miscellaneous revenue derived from all other sources in the inam estate specified in clause (b) of S. 3 but not including lands in respect of which the land bolder is entitled to a ryotwari patta as ascertained under S. 27. S. 27 provides that the net annual miscellaneous revenue shall be the average of the net annual income derived by the Government from such sources during the fasli year commencing on the notified date, if such date was the 1st day of July, or on the 1st July, immediately succeeding the notified date, if such date was not the 1st day of July and the next fasli year in case ryotwari settlement is effected in that year or the next two fasli years in other cases. S. 30(1) excludes from the computation of the basic annual sum, the ryotwari assessment imposed on all lands in an inam in respect of which any person including a landholder is entitled to ryotwari patta under S. 11 of the Act. Religious, educational and charitable institutions are under S. 32 to be paid compensation by an annual allowance called tasdik allowance. There are special provisions relating to inam estates held on condition of rendering service to religious institutions. S. 56 makes provision for collection of rents in arrears accrued prior to the notification and it entitles the tenant to secure a discharge of the balance of rents due on making certain payments even in cases where decrees of the Courts have been obtained. It is unnecessary for our present purpose to go into greater details of the enactment. As stated at the outset, the previsions in the Act generally follow those in the Estates Abolition Act (Madras Act XXVI of 1948) relating to Zamindari and Melwaram inam estates. The important deviation is in regard to compensation. While under Madras Act XXVI of 1948 basic annual sum in respect of a melwaram inam estate is arrived at by deducting from the aggregate of the gross annual ryotwari demand and the net annual miscellaneous revenue, the jodi, quit rent, kattubadi, etc., payable by the landholder to the Government or to the landholder of another estate, under the present Act, besides the jodi, quit rents or other amounts payable annually, the whole of the assessment levied on any land in an inam estate under the Madras Inams (Assessment) Act (XL of 1956) in respect of which the landholder is entitled to a ryotwari patta, is also deducted.