STATE OF ANDHRA PRADESH Vs. KONDAMANCHILI SURYANARAYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Second Appeal is on behalf of the State of Andhra represented by the District Collector, East Godavari. The proceeding arose out of a suit filed by the plaintiff-respondent for a declaration that the Notification issued by the Government under the Rent Reduction Act in respect of the village Jagannadha puram was illegal and ultra vires and for recovery of a sum of Rs. 100 collected by the Government as reduced rent in pursuance of the said Notification for the Faslis 1359, 1360 and 1361. The plaintiff alleged that he was the hereditary archaka of the temple of Sri Rajagopalaswamivaru and Rajalingeswaraswamivaru in Jagannadhapuram, that he owns the inam lands in Jagannadhapuram and was in enjoyment of the same, that he leased out these lands to several individuals. The Government published a Notification under Act XXX of 1947 fixing reduced rents in respect of the lands over which the plaintiff was in possession. In consequence of this the tenants refused to pay the rents and also set up occupancy rights in themselves.

(2.) The suit was resisted by the Government on the ground that the lands claimed by the plaintiff were registered in the names of Rajagopalaswami and Rajalingeswara swami; that Jagannadhapuram was a whole inam village and an estate as defined in section 3 (2) of the Estates Land Act and as such the Rent Reduction Act applied to the case and, therefore, the Notification was valid. It may also be pointed out that the plaintiff also stated in the plaint that the Settlement Officer, after enquiry, gave a decision that the said village was not an inam estate. The two documents which came up for consideration before the trial Court were Exhibits A-5 and A-7, the former being the Inam Fair Register and the latter the Bhooband Account. The trial Court on the entries in the Bhooband Account held that the word ' Sri Varu ' connoted a hamlet of a bigger village Rajanagaram and came to the conclusion that the entries in both the Inam Fair Register and the Bhooband Account establish the fact that it was the grant of a ' hamlet. The matter was taken up in appeal. The lower appellate Court construed the entries in the Inam Fair Register as amounting to a grant of particular pieces of land to different individuals and on that footing held that it could not be regarded as the grant of the whole area within a particular boundary as a named village, in order to attract the provisions of section 3 (2) (d) of the Act. In the result, he allowed the appeal and decreed the suit as prayed for. The Government has now come up in appeal.

(3.) It is urged on behalf of the appellant, the State of Andhra, that by reason of the amendments brought about by the Madras Estates Land (Andhra Amendment) Act XXXV of 1956 and by section 2 of the Madras Estates, Land (Andhra Pradesh Amendment) Act of 1957, the words ' any hamlet or khandriga ' have been substituted in the Explanation the result of which is that the grant of a hamlet or a khandriga would also satisfy the requirements of a definition of the estate within the meaning of section 3 (2) (d) of the Act. The further argument is that the entries in Exhibit A-7 support the case of the Government. The effect of the aforesaid amendments has been considered by Bhimasankaram. J., in S.A. No. 1151 of 1953, (1959) 2 An.W.R.67 (N.R.C.) and I am in respectful agreement with the learned Judge that the subsequent amendments do not affect the construction and interpretation of section 3 (2) (d) of the Act. It is enough to consider as to whether having regard to the terms of the grant, the grant could be regarded as the grant of a whole village or a named village as is envisaged by section 3(2) (d) of the Act and the matter has been elucidated by the judgment of the Supreme Court in the oft-quoted case of The District Board of Tanjore v. Noor Mohammed, (1952) 2 M.L.J.586 : A.I.R. 1953 S.C. 446. The observations of Mahajan, J., are significant. "In other words the grant must either comprise the whole area of a village or must be so expressed as tantamounts to the grant of a named village as a whole."