ABDUL GANI CHAUDHURY Vs. MAKBUL ALI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This second appeal arises out of a suit brought by the plaintiff to have the holding of the defendant declared such a holding as can be annulled under Section 37 of Act XI of 1859.

(2.) It appears that the plaintiff is the purchaser of the rights of defendant No. 5, who purchased the taraf at a sale for arrears of revenue. The defendants Nos. 1 and 2 are persons whom the Judge found to have cultivated the land themselves for 30 years before 1895, when they obtained pottah as raiyats at fixed rates. That pottah, of course, conferred upon them higher privileges than that of ordinary occupancy raiyats, but it certainly did not take away the occupancy right which they had already acquired, for they must have acquired that right prior to the Bengal Tenancy Act, not that in our opinion it would make any difference. The protection of occupancy raiyats at fixed rates which is referred to in Section 37 of Act XI of 1859 is not one of the ordinary exceptions in that section. It is a proviso expressing the determination of the Legislature that no purchaser shall disturb any of the permanent tenants on the land who are in actual occupation of the soil and are cultivating it. The term occupancy raiyats at fixed rent meant in the year 1859 apparently the successors of khademi khud kasht raiyats in the Regulations, while the ordinary khud khasht raiyats became occupancy raiyats. The intention of the Legislature, therefore, was that these khademi khud kasht raiyats should not only not be liable to ejectment, but should not be liable to any enhancement of rent; and to these persons have succeeded what the Bengal Tenancy Act now classes as "raiyats holding at fixed rates." Raiyats holding at fired rates, therefore, are primarily the persona referred to in the proviso to Section 37 of Act XI of 1859. But this doctrine of protection has been extended by recent rulings of this Court to ordinary occupancy raiyats, and the judgment of Mr. Justice Mitra which is the leading case Sarat Chandra Roy Chowdhry v. Asiman Bibi 8 C.W.N. 601 : 31 C. 725 on this point is frequently followed in this Court and has never been dissented from. The protection, therefore, is extended under the Bengal Tenancy Act from these kademi khud kasht raiyats or raiyats at fixed rates to all classes of occupancy raiyats; and the decision of Mr. Justice Mookerjee upon which the Chief Justice did not express any opinion in the case of Bhutnath Naskar y. Monmotho Nath Mitra 2 Ind. Cas. 675 : 11 C.L.J. 98 : 13 C.W.N. 105, which is based upon a technical interpretation of Section 160 of the Bengal Tenancy Act, can have nothing whatever to do with the question before us.

(3.) It may be argued that a person who takes the tenancy originally as a raiyat at fixed rates does not thereby acquire an occupancy right. But that does not imply that a man who has already obtained occupancy rights can by obtaining a grant of fixed rent lose that occupancy right. That appears to us to be neither in accordance with equity or common sense nor the wording of the law.