RANBAHADUR SINGH Vs. BOARD OF REVENUE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this petition under articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution assailing a decision of the Board of Revenue, the question raised is whether the valuable consideration received by the petitioners from persons to whom the petitioner granted possession of Bandhs under section 41 of the Rewa Land Revenue and Tenancy Code, 1935, could be included in the calculation of gross income for the purpose of assessment of compensation under the Vindhya Pradesh Abolition of Jagirs and Land Reforms Acr, 1952 (hereinafter referred to as the Act), and whether in the calculation of net income for the same purpose adduction of 2% could be made on account of 'Sewa' under paragraph 4 (C) of the Schedule to the Act.

(2.) UNDER section 10 of the Act, the State Government is liable to pay to every Jagirdar, whose jagir land has been resumed under section 5, compensation determined in accordance with the principles laid down in the Schedule to the Act. A Jagirdar whose jagir was resumed under section 5 of the Act was required to file a statement of claim for compensation in the prescribed form containing the particular mentioned in section 13 (2) and other particulars Prescribed by the rules. In the prescribed form, a Jagirdar could include other items of income, if any, mentioning the source of income and the average annual income from the source for the last twelve years. Paragraph 3 (a) of the Schedule to the Act provided for the inclusion of "rents, including cesses and local rates payable for the basic year by or on behalf of the tenants (other than tenants of 'sir'), sub -pawaidars, grantees at a concessional rate of rent and grove -holders....." in gross -income. The 'basic year' according to paragraph 2 of the Schedule was "the agricultural year immediately preceding the agricultural year in which the date of resumption' of the jagir fell. Paragraph 4 (c) provided that deduction of an amount equal to 2 per cent of the gross income in lieu of the services known as sewa or zabta, if the Jagirdar is liable to render any such Service" shal1 be made from the gross -income of the Jagirdar for determining the net income. Under the Act and the Schedule, the compensation payable to a Jagirdar was fixed in terms of certain multiples of the net income.

(3.) THE petitioners further contended before the Board of Revenue that the liability of rendering Sewa to the Rewa Darbar under section 2 (1) of the Rewa Land Revenue and Tenancy Code ceased to exist on the formation of Vindhya Pradesh when the Ruler of Rewa State divested himself of all his powers, and that, therefore, no deduction could be made under paragraph 4 (c) of the Schedule to the Act for calculating the net income. The Board took the view that the Rewa Land Revenue and Tenancy Code, 1935, was in force when the Vindhya Pradesh Abolition of Jagirs and Land Reforms Act, 1952, became operative, and that being so, the petitioners were under a legal liability to render Sewa to the Government of Vindhya Pradesh State, that is to say to the authority succeeding to the rights and powers of the Rewa Darbar; and that the fact that in actual practice no such Sewa was accepted from Jagirdars on and after the formation of Vindhya Pradesh State was wholly irrelevant to the question of deduction under paragraph 4 (c) of Schedule.