JAMSHEDJI ARDESHIR WADIA Vs. SECRETARY OF STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This suit was filed by the first plaintiff, Jehangir Ardeshir Wadia, styling himself the registered holder Inamdar and Khot of the villages of Juhu and Ville Parle in the Salsette Taluka of the Thana District, and by Plaintiffs Nos. 2 to 4 as the trustees of a trust settlement effected by the first holder on March 16, 1853, against the Secretary of State for India. The plaint recites that the villages were granted by a deed, dated February 9, 1848, to the late Nowroji Jamsedji Wadia, Master Builder, by the Hon ble Court of Directors of the East India Company. In 1821 the said Nowroji had been granted lands yielding an annual revenue of Rs. 4,000 from the estate held by one Hormusji Bomanji in Kurla in Salsette. For reasons which it is not necessary to set out in detail, the said Nowroji was not put in possession of any lands but continued to receive from the Company an annual payment of Rs. 4,000 and eventually, at the request of the said Nowroji the suit villages were assigned to him in perpetuity subject to an annual payment to the Company of Rs. 700.

(2.) That ever since the said grant the holder for the time bing enjoyed all the rights and privileges of a full owner without any objection on the part of Government.

(3.) That in November 1916 building plots in the village of Ville Parle were surveyed by Government without the holder's consent with a view to levy non- agricultural assessment. In spite of the holder's protest, Government contended that under the terms of the grant Government and not the holder were entitled to levy such assessment for its own benefit. Accordingly, the plaintiffs had to file this suit after due notice had been given under Section 80 of the Civil Procedure Code.