RAJA JAGAVEERA RAMA ETTAPPA Vs. ARUMUGAM CHETTI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS was a consolidated appeal in suits brought by a number of raiyats in the zamindari of Gandamanaickanur against their landlord, the zamindar of Ettiyapuram, in the district of Tinnevelly. He had tendered pattas for fasli 1312, at 8 fanams per guli, at which rate they had paid rent for several years. These the raiyats rejected, claiming that the proper rate was 4 fanams only, and brought these suits under Section 8 of the Madras Rent Recovery Act (No. VIII. of 1865) to obtain such pattas as they said they were entitled to receive.

(2.) THE Act of 1865, though since repealed by the Madras Estates Land Act (No. I. of 1908), was the Act then in force, and in suits "involving disputes regarding rates of rent," Section 11 provides that "all contracts for rent, express or implied, shall be enforced." Though this statute does not define "rent," Section 3, which makes the delivery of pattas and muchalkas mutually obligatory, requires that they shall state "the amount and nature of the rent," according as "it is payable in money or in kind or by a share in the produce." Regulation XXX. of 1802, which had provided for such written records, and for fixing rents by the rates in the Government assessment, was generally silent as to rents fixed by contract between the parties. The judgment in Venkatagopal v. Rangappa I.L.R. 7 M. 365 explains the circumstances under which, between 1802 and 1865, it had become necessary to give effect to contracts and not merely to status and usage, and more particularly to such contracts as are implied from bare payment and acceptance of rent at a particular rate or measured in a particular way. Whether the framers of the Act fully appreciated its effect or not, the expression "implied contract" is an English term of Article and must be so construed. It involves the legal incident of some consideration moving from the landlord, as that incident is understood in English law. Accordingly the scheme of the section was as follows: If a contract, express or implied, and legally enforceable, was once established, the issue was determined and the proper patta was one giving effect to that contract. If, on the other hand, no such contract could be established, then, since, in the words of the District Judge on the second hearing in his Court, "it is not pretended that this zamindari was surveyed by Government before the 1st January, 1859," local usage could be proved. If such usage established a proper rent, then either party, if dissatisfied with it, could require resort to the varani customary in the village for the division of the crop between landlord and tenant (of which no evidence was given or could have been given in these suits, as events happened), and, failing proof of such a customary varam. it would have been the collector's duty to fix such rate as he thought just, after ascertaining if any increase in the value of the produce or in the productive power of the land has taken place, otherwise than by the agency or at the expense of the raiyat." It followed, under this scheme, that if these raiyats failed to prove an implied contract at 4 fanams enforceable between the parties, and if the landlord succeeded in proving such a contract at 8 fanams. no further issue arose for decision.

(3.) ARUMUGAM Chetti, the selected plaintiff, pleaded, rather indefinitely, that the field in question "was a punja land, bearing 4 fanams rate of assessment," but that since the well had been sunk "the defendant had been charging garden assessment," without having any right to do so. The zamindar did not deny the raiyats statement quoted above, but. besides reviving on the actual payment of rent without dispute at the rate of 8 fanams, pleaded "a longstanding custom for the zamindar to collect teerva from the raiyats according to the following rate-(1.) from 8 fanams to 10 fanams per guli for garden cultivation; and that, "in the said zamindari, the faisal rates have been fixed in fasli 1210 at 15 fanams per guli for garden cultivation." The record leaves the actual course taken at the trial on these pleadings somewhat conjectural.