RAI KRISHAN SARAN Vs. STATE OF U P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a petition by six persons under Article 226 of the Constitution against five named respondents; the respondents to the petition are (1) The State of Uttar Pradesh, (2) The Sub-Divisional Officer, Chunar, District Mirzapur, (3) Gram Samaj, Jalalpur, District Mirzapur, (4) Gram Samaj, Arazi Sultanpur, District Mirzapur, and (5) Gram Samaj, Aibakpur Muhana, District Mirzapur. The prayers that have been made by the petitioners are these: (a) that a writ of certiorari or other direction or order may be issued quashing the order dated the 24th of November 1955, passed by respondent No. 2; and (b) that a writ of prohibition, or other direction or order as the Court may deem fit be issued restraining the respondents from interfering in any way with the rights of the petitioners to the ferry situate at village Arazi Lain, Sultanpur, District Mirzapur. The petitioners also claimed an ad interim injunction, which, it may be pointed out, was granted to the petitioners by an order of this Court dated the 18th of January, 1956.

(2.) The facts on which this petition has been founded briefly stated were these: The petitioners owned a private ferry which operated across the river Ganges at village Arazi Lain Sultanpur in the district of Mirzapur. The petitioners derived their rights to this ferry under a Sanad granted by Warren Hastings sometimes in the year 1781. The petitioners contended that they had been operating this ferry without let or hindrance ever since that day. After the abolition of zamindaris on the passing of the Uttar Pradesh Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act, 1950, and after the making of the Vesting Order the respondents considered that the rights which the petitioners enjoyed in the ferry got vested in the three Gram Samaj respondents, namely, respondents Nos. 3 to 5. A Notification No. 241/1-A-1730-53, dated 13th February 1954, was issued by respondent No. 1 under which all private ferries, other than those mentioned in Schedule I attaching to that Notification were made to vest in the State because of an earlier Notification, No. 4094/1-A-450-51, dated 1st July 1952, which Notification had been issued under Sub-section (1) of Section 4 of the U. P. Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act (Act I of 1951). On the 24th of November 1955, an order was made by the Sub-Divisional Officer of Chunar, Mirzapur, in the following terms:--

(3.) Before coming to notice the respective contentions advanced by the parties before me, I should like to state some of the uncontroverted facts, which have appeared either on the affidavits or on the documents filed as Annexures to those affidavits. The rights which the petitioners claimed in this ferry originated in a grant which appears to have been made by Warren Hastings as far back as the 5th of Zilhij in the 26th Year of the reign pf Shah Alam: according to one computation this date would fall sometime between April and June, 1788 of the Georgian Calendar. A copy of the original grant is to be found at p. 211 of Vol. VIII of Duncan Records for the year 1788. This Record was produced before me by the Standing Counsel after obtaining it from the Keeper of Government Records. The grant was described as 'Ultaghma Jageer' and the properties covered by that grant were mentioned in a schedule appended at the end of the grant. Four villages, namely, Sultanpur, Majidpur, Kusapur and Mujeear, were granted and the fifth item granted was 'Mahal of the Sultanpur Ferry'. The grant was to take effect from Khris of 1189 Fasli. It appears that during the troublous times of the Mutiny military officers stationed at Sultanpur or near about that place interfered with the right of the predecessor-in-interest of the petitioners to this ferry: they even for a time ousted the predecessor-in-interest of the petitioners and farmed this ferry to some others. The predecessors-in-interest of the petitioners, therefore, filed a suit for the declaration of their rights and for possession of the ferry. The suit was numbered as 42 of 1856 and was filed in the Court of the Principal Sadar Amin. This suit culminated in an appeal in the Court of the Sadar Dewani Adalatat Agra on the 7th April 1866. Roberts and Pearson, JJ., who formed the Bench that heard the appeal, held that the plaintiffs of that suit had proved their title to the ferry on the Sanad granted to them by Warren Hastings and that, therefore, they were entitled to be restored to possession until they were evicted by Government under some law. By the decision of this appeal the decision, of the Principal Sadar Amin in the suit was reversed.