MAHARANA SHRI JAYAVANTSINHJI RANMALSINHJI SARDAR JORAVARKHANJI LATIFKHANJI SHRI BALWANTSINHJI SAHEBSINHJI THAKUR VIKRAMSINHJI MANHARSINHJI MAHARANA JAYAVANTSINHJI RANMALSINHJI Vs. STATE OF BOMBAY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These are three appeals by Special Leave from the judgment of the High Court of Judicature at Bombay dismissing the petitions filed by the appellants for Writs in the nature of Prohibition restraining the respondents from realising from the appellants and revenue in respect of their estates at an enhanced rate for the year 1955-56. The petitioners in the two petitions also asked for similar relief against the respondents. The appeals as well as the Writ Petitions were heard together, as they raised a common question of law.

(2.) The material facts in Civil Appeal No. 254 of 1958 may be briefly stated:The appellant was a taluqdar owning several taludari villages situate in the Dholka Taluka of Ahmedabad District. In the year 1922-23 there was a revision settlement of land revenue of the lands situate in the said taluka including the said taluqdari villages under that settlement the aggregate of the land revenue payable in respect of the lands comprised in the said taluqdari villages was fixed in a sum of Rs. 62,627-2-6. In the year 1925-26, in exercise of the powers conferred under S. 22 of the Gujarat Taluqdars' Act, 1888 (Bom. VI of 1888) (hereinafter referred to as the Taluqdars'Act), the Government of Bombay ascertained and declared that a jama of Rs.32,643-3-0 was payable in respect of the said taluqdari villages and the said declaration was to remain in force for a period of thirty years from the year 1925-26. In the year 1949, the Bombay Legislature passed the Bombay Taluqdari Abolition Act, 1949, hereinafter referred to as the Abolition Act, and it came into force on or about August 15, 1950. By S. 3 of the Abolition Act, the taluqdari tenure was abolished and all the incidents of the said tenure attaching to any land comprised in the taluqdari estate were extinguished. Under the Abolition Act, the appellant became an occupant of the lands. After the expiry of the thirty-years period, the talatis of the respective villages called upon the appellant to pay the full land revenue assessment in respect of the lands comprised in the said villages. The appellant contending that he was only liable to pay jama declared to be payable by him by the Government in 1925-26 filed a Writ Petition in the High Court of Bombay for the aforesaid relief.

(3.) The appellant in Civil Appeal No. 255 of 1958 was a taluqdar owning several taluqdari villages situate in Dholka and Dhandhulka Talukas of Ahmedabad District. The facts in this case are similar to those given in Civil Appeal No. 254 of 1953 except in regard to the fact that the jama ascertained and declared to be payable by the appellant in this appeal by the Government in 1925-26 was about Rs. 5,734 as against the settlement amount of Rs, 14,452-11-0.