RAJAH MUMTAZ ALI KHAN Vs. RAJAH KISHENDATT RAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE facts of this case, though some of them were originally contested, are now hardly in dispute, and may be shortly stated.

(2.) ON the 22nd of May, 1846, Rajah Umrao Ali Khan, described as the Zemindar of Ilaka Utraola (the father of the Respondent), executed in favour of Pande Ramdatt Ram (who is now represented by his brother the Appellant) the instrument of mortgage which is set out above. The nature of the interest so mortgaged, or intended to be mortgaged, will be afterwards considered. At present it is sufficient to state that the deed purported to be a usufructuary mortgage of the villages specified in the schedule to it, redeemable on the repayment, at a certain season of the year, of Rs. 36,000, the principal sum secured; the mortgagee entering into possession, and taking, until redemption, the rents and profits of the mortgaged property, in lieu of interest. Of those villages, two, viz. Panipur and Mubarakpur, have in some way ceased to belong to the estate; the others have, in the record, been conveniently divided into seven separate classes or groups.

(3.) AT the summary settlement, posterior to Lord Canning's proclamation, the mortgagee appears to have been allowed to engage for all the villages contained in the seven groups, and thenceforward to have held them as a talook, subject of course to the right of any subordinate zemindar, or other sub-tenant, to a sub-settlement.