SAUDAMINI DASSYA Vs. SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal by the plaintiffs in a suit instituted by them with a view to test the legality of an assessment of revenue made under the Bengal Alluvion and Diluvion Act (IX of 1847). The case for the plaintiffs is that the disputed lands, which have been assessed with revenue, belonged to them as appertaining to their estate No. 4823, on the revenue roll of the Collector of Backergunge. They maintain that the assessment would not have been validly made under the provisions of Act IX of 1847 as the lands are not added lands within the meaning of that statute; and they ask for a declaration that the assessment proceedings are without jurisdiction, that the settlement made with the defendants by the Secretary of State is illegal and for consequential relief. On behalf of the Secretary of State, who is the first defendant, the claim, has been resisted on the ground that the disputed lands are not included within estate No. 4828, but are accretions to estates Nos. 1721 and 1722 held by the other defendants, and have been rightly assessed with revenue. The Subordinate Judge has held that the disputed lands form an alluvial increment to estate No. 4823, that the plaintiffs as proprietors of that estate are entitled to hold the lands subject to the payment of the revenue assessed, and that the settlement made with the defendants is invalid and inoperative. The plaintiff as well as the defendants other than the Secretary of State are dissatisfied with this decision. The plaintiffs have appealed on the ground that the lands are included in their permanently settled estate and are not liable to be assessed with revenue. The defendants have appealed on the ground that the lands ate accretions to their estates and have been rightly settled with them. The appeal preferred by the plaintiffs (No. 237 of 1919) requires examination first, in the light of the relevant statutory provisions.

(2.) The provisions of Act IX of 1847 were analysed in the judgment of the Judicial Committee delivered by Lord Herschell in the case of Secy. of State V/s. Fahamidannissa [1889] 17 Cal. 590; the Judicial Committee affirmed the decision of the majority of the Full Bench in Fahamidannissa V/s. Secy. of State [1886] 14 Cal. 67 (F.B.) which had overruled in part the decision of Wilson, J., in Sarat Sundari V/s. Secy. of State [1885] 11 Cal. 784. Act IX of 1847 was framed for the assessment of lands gained from the sea or from rivers by alluvion or dereliction. Section 3 empowers the Government to direct new surveys of riparian lands, and provides as follows: Within the said provinces it shall be lawful for the Government of Bengal, in all districts or parts of districts of which a revenue-survey may have been or may hereafter be completed and approved by Government, to direct from time to time, whenever ten years from the approval of any such survey shall have expired, anew survey of lands on the banks of rivers and on the shores of the sea, in order to ascertain the changes that may have taken place since the date of the last previous survey, and to cause new maps to be made according to such new survey.

(3.) Section 4 lays down that the approval of the revenue surveys of districts or parts of districts, which may be hereafter surveyed, shall be deemed to have taken place on such day as may be specified as the day of such approval in the Calcutta Gazette. Secs.5 and 6 deal, respectively, with the question of deduction from jama of estates from which lands have been washed away, and the question of the assessment of increments to revenue paying estates. Section 6 which is relevant, in the case before us, provides as follows: Whenever on inspection of any such new map, it shall appear to the local Revenue- authorities that land has been added to any estate paying revenue directly to Government, they shall, without delay, assess the same with a revenue payable to Government according to the rules in force for assessing alluvial increments and shall report their proceedings forthwith to the Board of Revenue, whose orders thereupon shall be final.