Maha-Rajah Ishuree Persad Narain Sing and Another v Sing

JurisdictionUK Non-devolved
Judgment Date28 July 1842
Date28 July 1842
CourtPrivy Council

English Reports Citation: 18 E.R. 435

ON APPEAL FROM BENGAL.

Maha-Rajah Ishuree Persad Narain Sing and Baboo Deep Narain Sing
-Appellants
Lal Chutterput Sing,-Respondent 1

[100] MAHA-RAJAH ISHUREE PEES AD NARAIN SING and BABOO DEEP NARAIN1 SING,-Appellants; LAL CHUTTERPUT SING,-Respondent * [July 14, 16, 20, 21, 28, 1842]. On appeal from Bengal. A sale in 1802 of lands in Allahabad, for arrears of Government revenue, set aside by the Mofussil and Sudder Commissions, constituted under Reg. I. of 1821, although no suit brought to annul the sale until the year 1821. Affirmed on appeal by the Judicial Committee. But the sale having taken place by the direction of the Government, and there being no fraud on the part of the Purchaser, the Judicial Committee, under clause 2, sec. 4 of Reg. I. of 1821, awarded the Purchaser compensation to be paid by the Government. This was an appeal from a decree bearing date the 24th of February, 1829, * Present: Members of the Judicial Committee-The Lord President (Lord Wharncliffe), Lord Brougham, the Vice-Chancellor Knight Bruce, and The Right Hon. Dr. Lushington. Privy Councillors,-Assessors-Sir Edward Hyde East, Bart., and Sir Alexander Johnston, Knt. 435 Ill MOORE IND. APP., 101 MAHA-RAJAH ISHUREE PERSAD NARAIN SING pronounced by the Sudder Special Commission, appointed under Reg. I. of 1821 (abolished by cl. 1, sec. 10, Reg. I. 1829), for the ceded and conquered Provinces under the Presidency of Bengal. By this decree, so much of the previous decree of the 31st of August, 1826, of the Mofussil Special Commission, constituted under the provisions of the same Regulation, as annulled a sale by auction of pergunnah Barah, in the Zillah Allahabad, for arrears of revenue, and decreed the restitution thereof to the Respondent, was affirmed; but so much of that decree as directed compensation out of the Government treasury in favour of the Appellant, the Maha-rajah, was reversed. The sale took place under these circumstances: - [101] In the year 1207 Fusly (a.d. 1799-1800), the Zillah of Allahabad formed part of the dominions of the Nawab Vizier of Oude, and Lai Juggut Raj, the Father of the Respondent, was at that time the zemindary lessee of the pergunnah Arael, and hereditary Zemindar of the pergunnah Barah, which were jointly assessed at the sum of Rs. 320,000. In 1801 a new assessment was made by the Nazim (or chief Officer) of the Nawab Vizier, Roy Madary Lai, whereby an increase of Rs. 10,000 was added, and the jumma of the pergunnah fixed for two years certain at Rs. 330,000; and, notwithstanding this arrangement, and an agreement, signed by both parties, a further assessment was made in the same year, and Lai Juggut Raj was compelled by force and intimidation, to execute another deed or engagement, binding himself to pay an annual jumma of Rs. 346,000 in the two following years, instead of Rs. 330,000, as previously assessed and agreed. In the year 1801, a.d., the Nawab Vizier ceded the Zillah of Allahabad to the East India Company, and Mr. Ahmuty was appointed bv the British authorities Collector of the Zillah. The Collector, on entering on his office, issued notices, calling upon the Zemindars to render an account of the Government dues. In obedience to this summons, Lai. Juggut Raj attended at the Collector's office, when an arrear of Rs. 41,134. 15a. 3g. appeared due from him to Roy Madary Lai, under the agreement so obtained from, him. The arrears continuing unliquidated, Mr. Ahmuty, with the sanction of the Lieutenant-Governor and Board of Commissioners, on the 30th of October, 1802, caused the zemindary of pergunnah Barah to be [102] put up for sale by public auction, with a view of realizing the arrears, when the pergunnah was purchased for Rs. 93,000 by Baboo Outtroo Sing, the Naib, or agent, of Maha-rajah Oudit Narrain Sing, the then Rajah of Benares, in the name of the Rajah's Brother, Baboo Deep Narain Sing, one of the Appellants, who was shortly afterwards put in possession, and to whom a deed of sale was regularly made in November in the following year. In the year 1808, Lai Chutterput Sing, the Son of Lai Juggut Raj, presented a petition to the Board of Commissioners, alleging that, instead of his having been in arrear when the sale took place, a balance was due to him; and that the sale was brought about through the contrivance and enmity of the Collector, and was purchased by the Rajah in the name of his Brother, through fraud and connivance, and praying that he might be restored to his inheritance. The Board forwarded the petition with its inclosure to the Governor-General in Council, and after stating the result of their examination of the case, concluded their report with the following paragraph: - " It is too late to regret that the first measure of the British Government, on the introduction of its authority into the province of Allahabad, should have been the sale of one of the largest of the zemindaries in it, and the extirpation of an old and respectable family, and at this distance of time the interposition of Government may probably be no longer of any avail. After a lapse of six years, it must be scarcely possible to revise the collections of the successive Sazawals deputed by the Collector, or to revert to the different persons on whom the Collector had engaged to enforce Juggut Raj's claim; and from the retirement [103] of the p"blic Officer, through whose concealment of some, and misrepresentation of other material facts, the sale was ordered, all redress seems to be precluded. At the same time, therefore, that we submit the case to Government as one of peculiar hardship, we confess ourselves at a loss to frame any specific proposition in regard to it. Should, however, every 436 V. LAL CHUTTERPUT SING [1842] III MOORE IND. AFP., 104 other redress be impracticable, your Lordships may possibly consider Juggut Raj, under all the circumstances, entitled to some provision from Government." In consequence of this report and recommendation, the Governor-General, on the 1st of September, 1809, granted an annuity of Rs. 5000 to Lai Juggut Raj. On the 12th of September, 1820, the Respondent, Lai Chutterput Sing, the Son of Lai Chutterput Raj, filed a plaint in the Provincial Court of Benares against the Collector of Allahabad and Baboo Deep Narain Sing, to set aside the sale of his hereditary zemindary, as invalid and illegal. The Plaintiff set forth the circumstances under which Juggut Raj had been compelled to submit to the oppressive assessment of his pergunuah under the Nawab Vizier's government, and the subsequent adoption of that assessment by the British Government, the inability of Juggut Raj to pay the same in full, the arrears, and the consequent sale of the pergunnah Barah, which the Plaintiff alleged had been illegally and unjustly sold for arrears not legally due, at an inadequate price, the approval of which was obtained through misrepresentation and falsehood, and the sale effected by collusion and fraud. He stated himself to have been an infant at the time of the sale, that the property was hereditary property, and prayed that the sale might, under the circumstances, be declared void, and the estate restored. [104] The Defendants answered the plaint, but no further proceedings were had in the Court of Benares, in consequence of the establishment of the Mofussil Special Commission, under Reg. I. of 1821. This Regulation was passed by the Governor-General in Council, on the 13th of January, 1821, " for the appointment of a Special Commission in the ceded and conquered Provinces, for the investigation and decision of certain claims to recover possession of land illegally or wrongfully disposed of by public sale, or lost through private transfers, effected by undue influence; and for the correction of errors or omissions of the proceedings adopted, by the revenue Officers, in regard to the record and recognition of proprietary rights, and the assessment of the tenures, interests, and privileges of the agricultural community." The preamble stated, that " It had appeared that, in the first seven or eight years after the acquisition of the ceded Provinces by the British Government, the native Officers of Government, their relations, connections, and dependants, taking advantage of the novelty of the British rule, of the weakness and ignorance of the people, and (in some cases) of the culpable supineness and misconduct of the European functionaries, under whose authority they were employed, contrived, by fraudulent and iniquitous practices, to acquire very extensive estates in several of the Provinces in question, more especially in the Districts of Allahabad, Cawnpoor, and Goruckpoor, thus wrongfully depriving of their just rights a great number of the ancient landowners, and reducing them and their numerous dependants to ruin and misery. That these abuses had been chiefly practised through the perversion, to the purposes of chicanery and fraud, of the [105] rules enacted for the collection of the Government revenue, more especially the provisions relating to the public sale of land for arrears. Under cover of these rules, but contrary to the true intent and meaning of the law by which (though a considerable discretion was left to the Revenue authorities) the measure of a public sale was principally designed for cases of embezzlement, contumacy, or fraud, many estates were sold, from which no balance, or a very trifling balance, was due, or on which the arrear accrued without any embezzlement or wilful default on the part of the Sudder Malguzar, and others were disposed of without an observance of the prescribed forms." It then recited, that " the existing Regulations did not vest the Civil Courts with so extensive a discretion in the adjustment of a doubtful claim, and in the relief of parties suffering hardships, as the cases in question appeared to demand "; and that " proceedings of the established Courts must necessarily...

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