HARSAMUKHI DASI Vs. PARSURAM BIDHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This suit is one of four brought to eject the defendants in each case from the plaintiff's zamindari. The defendants in each case resisted the claim alleging that they are proprietary tenure-holders with permanent hereditary and transferable rights and that these rights are held by them independently of any grant by the plaintiff and that the plaintiff is bound to respect their tenures. The suits were brought in the Court of the Subordinate Judge of Cuttack who tried them together and decided in favour of the contention of the defendants. On account of the valuation in this particular case the appeal lies to this Court whereas in the other cases the appeals are pending in the Court of the District Judge.

(2.) It is admitted by the plaintiff-appellant that the respondents were during the period of the last Provincial Settlement ending on 7 September 1927, rightly recorded as holding possession as "miadi sarbarakars" and the matter for our determination is as to the nature of this tenure and whether after the termination of the period mentioned the defendants are entitled to continue in possession. Are the defendants tenures temporary or permanent?

(3.) The British occupied Orissa in the year 1803 after ousting the Marhattas who had held the country since the middle of the 18 century having won it from the decaying Moghul Empire. Under Mahratta rule the country had been exhausted by extortion. There was no settled system for collecting revenue, and the Moghul system which formed the basis of the British system in Bengal had been thoroughly disorganised. Consequently for some years at the beginning of the 19 century the British were engaged in enquiries into such systems as were still traceable and in experiments in reorganisation and settlement. This experience culminated in the Survey and Settlement which was begun in 1837 and finally completed in the year 1845 and formed a new starting point for all subsequent operations.