MAHARAJA OF BURDWAN; THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA IN COUNCIL; RAJ NARAIN Vs. SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA IN COUNCIL; THE MAHARAJA OF BURDWAN; THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA IN COUNCIL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The question involved in these appeals is whether the plaintiff, the Maharaja of Burdwan, is entitled to the Churs that form in the rivers Damodar and Darakeswar without liability of further assessment of Government revenue. The appeals which are preferred by the Secretary of State for India in Council have reference to the portion of the river which lies wholly within the limits of the permanently settled estate of the plaintiff on which the learned Judge in the Court below held that the Government were not entitled to assess further Government revenue. The appeals by the plaintiff refer to the portion of the river of which the plaintiff is the proprietor of the riparian Mouzas on one side of the river only. The learned Judge held with regard to these that by the rule of "middle thread" the soil in one half of the river was vested in the plaintiff but that he was liable to assessment to further Government revenue in respect of Churs forming in the river. One of the main questions that has been raised in these appeals is whether the river Damodar was a navigable river at the time of the Permanent Settlement. The learned Subordinate Judge found that the Damodar was not navigable at the time of the Permanent Settlement.

(2.) Now the evidence relied on by the learned Judge on this question is the answers to certain interrogatories in the Appendix to the 5th Report of the Select Committee of the House of Commons on the affairs of the East India Company.

(3.) The answers of the Judge and Magistrate of Zillah Burdwan are dated the 9th of March 1802--a portion of answer No. 17 is in the following terms: "The commerce has been both much facilitated and extended by the opening of the three grand roads leading to Hooghly, Kalna and Kutwa, which have lately been put into a good state of repair by the labour of the convicts and nothing can more forward the commerce of this district which has not the advantage of inland navigation or more conduce to the general convenience of the inhabitants than good roads."