DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.34367#0218
160
REGULATION XIX.
[A.D. 1793
money or kind, according- to local custom), unless it transfers its right
thereto for a term or in perpetuity, or limits the public demand upon the
whole of the lands belonging to an individual, leaving him to appropriate to
his own use the difference between the value of such proportion of the
produce and the sum payable to the public, whilst he continues to
discharge the latter. As a necessary consequence of this law, if a zemindar
made a grant of any part of-his lands to be held exempt from the payment
of revenue, it was considered void, from being an alienation of the dues of
Government without its sanction. Had the validity of such grants been
admitted, it is obvious that the revenue of Government would have been
liable to gradual diminution. Previous, however, to the Company's
accession to the dewanny, numerous grants of this description were made,
not only by the zemindars but by the officers of Government appointed to
the temporary superintendence of the collection of the revenue, under the
pretext that the produce of the lands was to be applied to religious or
charitable uses. Of these grants some were applied to the purposes for
which they were professed to have been made, but, in general, they were
given for the personal advantage of the grantee, or with a view to the
clandestine appropriation of the produce to the use of the grantor, or sold
to supply his private exigencies. In conformity to the principles which
prevailed under the native administration, the British Government have
at various times declared all grants for holding land exempt from the
payment of revenue made since the date of the Company's accession to
the dewanny, without their sanction, illegal and void. Their lenity,
however, induced them to adopt it as a principle, that grants of this de-
scription made previous to the date of the dewanny, and provided the
grantees had obtained possession, should be held valid to the extent of
the intentions of the grantor, as ascertainable from the terms of the
writings by which the grants might have been made, or from their nature
and denomination. But no complete register of these exempted lands
having been formed upon the Company's accession to the dewanny, nor
subsequent to that period, many zemindars, as well as the temporary
farmers of the public revenue, and the officers of Government to whom
the collection of the revenue in the diherent districts has been occasionally
committed, in consequence of the zemindars refusing to pay the revenue
demanded of them, have availed themselves of the above-mentioned rule
of limitation, to make grants of extensive tracts of land to others, or in
the names of their relations or dependants, for their own use, dating the
deeds for these alienations previous to the Company's accession to the
dewanny, or procuring them to be registered in the zemindarry records as
having been alienated prior to that period. Others have made such
alienations without antedating the grants, and left it to the grantee to
maintain himself in possession by such means as circumstances might
afford, in the event of his title being brought into question. The Governor-
General in Council deeming it incumbent on him to recover the public
the primary cognizance and decision of such claims, subject to revision, on appeal, by the
special commissioners, where those officers are appointed ; or in other cases by the Civil
Courts, in original suits in the nature of appeals to set aside such decisions. The same
enactments authorize the collector to entertain claims of parties to hold lands free of assess-
ment.—See Clause 11, Sec. v. Reg. IX. 1825.
By Section iv. Regulation II. 1819, the provisions of this Regulation were declared
applicable to mocurrery and other grants limiting the demand of Government.
REGULATION XIX.
[A.D. 1793
money or kind, according- to local custom), unless it transfers its right
thereto for a term or in perpetuity, or limits the public demand upon the
whole of the lands belonging to an individual, leaving him to appropriate to
his own use the difference between the value of such proportion of the
produce and the sum payable to the public, whilst he continues to
discharge the latter. As a necessary consequence of this law, if a zemindar
made a grant of any part of-his lands to be held exempt from the payment
of revenue, it was considered void, from being an alienation of the dues of
Government without its sanction. Had the validity of such grants been
admitted, it is obvious that the revenue of Government would have been
liable to gradual diminution. Previous, however, to the Company's
accession to the dewanny, numerous grants of this description were made,
not only by the zemindars but by the officers of Government appointed to
the temporary superintendence of the collection of the revenue, under the
pretext that the produce of the lands was to be applied to religious or
charitable uses. Of these grants some were applied to the purposes for
which they were professed to have been made, but, in general, they were
given for the personal advantage of the grantee, or with a view to the
clandestine appropriation of the produce to the use of the grantor, or sold
to supply his private exigencies. In conformity to the principles which
prevailed under the native administration, the British Government have
at various times declared all grants for holding land exempt from the
payment of revenue made since the date of the Company's accession to
the dewanny, without their sanction, illegal and void. Their lenity,
however, induced them to adopt it as a principle, that grants of this de-
scription made previous to the date of the dewanny, and provided the
grantees had obtained possession, should be held valid to the extent of
the intentions of the grantor, as ascertainable from the terms of the
writings by which the grants might have been made, or from their nature
and denomination. But no complete register of these exempted lands
having been formed upon the Company's accession to the dewanny, nor
subsequent to that period, many zemindars, as well as the temporary
farmers of the public revenue, and the officers of Government to whom
the collection of the revenue in the diherent districts has been occasionally
committed, in consequence of the zemindars refusing to pay the revenue
demanded of them, have availed themselves of the above-mentioned rule
of limitation, to make grants of extensive tracts of land to others, or in
the names of their relations or dependants, for their own use, dating the
deeds for these alienations previous to the Company's accession to the
dewanny, or procuring them to be registered in the zemindarry records as
having been alienated prior to that period. Others have made such
alienations without antedating the grants, and left it to the grantee to
maintain himself in possession by such means as circumstances might
afford, in the event of his title being brought into question. The Governor-
General in Council deeming it incumbent on him to recover the public
the primary cognizance and decision of such claims, subject to revision, on appeal, by the
special commissioners, where those officers are appointed ; or in other cases by the Civil
Courts, in original suits in the nature of appeals to set aside such decisions. The same
enactments authorize the collector to entertain claims of parties to hold lands free of assess-
ment.—See Clause 11, Sec. v. Reg. IX. 1825.
By Section iv. Regulation II. 1819, the provisions of this Regulation were declared
applicable to mocurrery and other grants limiting the demand of Government.