TULJA RAJ Vs. JAGIR ADMINISTRATOR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an application for the issue of a Writ of certiorari to quash an order of the Board of Revenue, dated the soth February, 1956. The facts which have given rise to this application may be briefly stated : The petitioners are the Gujaradars of the estate of Raja Dharam Karan. Raja Vinayak Raj, who was the head of the family of the petitioners,was receiving a monthly guzara of H. S. Rs. 772-10-0 from the estate of Raja Dharam Karan, until his death, in the year 1941. Thereafter Raja Raj Bahadur, the younger brother of Vinayak Raj, was drawing the said guzara till the month of September, 1951. The said Raja Raj Bahadur died in December 1951. While so, the the said guzara was commuted under the Hyderabad Jagirs (Commutation) Regulation, whereupon this petitioner filed an application before the Jagir Administrator stating inter aha that the guzaras which his family was receiving were being paid from the Jagir as a whole as distinct from personal guzaras received from the income of Jagirdars or Hissedars, and that the guzaras which was being paid to the petitioner's family could not be commuted and that they should be paid the monthly allowance of Rs. 772-10-0 as before. In an order, dated the ist of August, 1953, the Deputy Jagir Administrator held that there was no provision in the Commutation Regulation or the Jagirs Abolition Regulation providing for the continuance of the fixed guzaras for any definite period and that they were subject to commutation and payment, in instalments just as the hissas of Jagirdars or Hissedars. Taking that view, he rejected the application filed before him by the 6th petitioner.

(2.) Aggrieved by the order of the Deputy Jagir Administrator, the petitioners preferred an appeal to the Jagir Administrator, who confirmed the decision of the Deputy Jagir Administrator on the 26th November, 1953. The petitioners thereupon preferred an appeal to the Board of Revenue reiterating the same contentions which they unsuccessfully urged before the Deputy Jagir Administrator and the Jagir Administrator. On the aoth February, 1956, the Board of Revenue confirmed the order of the Jagir Administrator and dismissed the appeal by the petitioners. It is this order of the Board of Revenue that is sought to be questioned in the above Writ Petition.

(3.) It has been contended by Mr. Rangachari, learned counsel for the petitioners, that there is no provision whatsoever either in the Hyderabad (Abolition of Jagirs) Regulation or in the Hyderabad Jagirs (Commutation) Regulation, authorising or empowering the Jagir Administrator or any person or authority to compute the guzaras that were being paid from the Jagir as a whole to the petitioners, and that therefore the Jagir Administrator acted wholly without jurisdiction and without authority in commuting the guzaras which were being paid to the petitioners' family. The short question which arises for determination in this writ petition is whether the guzaras which the petitioners' family were receiving from the income of the Jagir are subject to the operation of the Hyderabad Jagirs (Commutation) Regulation, 1359 Fasli.