Section 1 in The Bengal Revenue-Free Lands (Non-Badshahi Grants) Regulation, 1793
1. Preamble.
- By the ancient law of the country the ruling power is entitled to a certain proportion of the produce of every bigha of land (demandable in 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 zamindar 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 Diwani, numerous grants of this description were made, not only by the zamindars, 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 Diwani, without their sanction, illegal and void.Their lenity, however, induced them to adopt it as a principle that grants of this description made previous to the date of the Diwani, 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 Diwani, nor subsequent to that period, many zamindars, as well as the temporary farmers of the public revenue, and the officers of Government to whom the collection of the revenue in the different districts has been occasionally committed, in consequence of the zamindars refusing to pay the revenue demanded of them, have availed themselves of the abovementioned rule of limitation to make grants of extensive tracts of land to others, or in the names of their relations or dependents, for their own use, dating the deeds for these alienations previous to the Company's accession to the Diwani, or procuring them to be registered in the zamindari 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 dues thus alienated in opposition to the ancient and existing laws of the country, as well as to resume the revenue of all lands the, grants for which might expire; and as the proprietors of estates were not entitled to collect such of the public dues from the lands included in their estates, as Government had judged it advisable to transfer to individuals, or to resume those which had been alienated by themselves or other, the amount in both cases being excluded from the assets on which the settlement was to be concluded, it was made a rule at the time of forming the decennial settlement, and which has been re-enacted by section 36, [Regulation VIII, 1793,] [The Bengal Decennial Settlement Regulation, 1793.] that the jama assessed upon the estates of individuals was to be considered as exclusive and independent of all existing lakhiraj lands, whether exempted from the khiraj or public revenue, with or without due authority; and by the Third clause of the seventh article of the Proclamation contained in [Regulation I, 1793,] [The Bengal Permanent Settlement Regulation, 1793.] which specifies the conditions under which Government declared the decennial settlement permanent, it is expressly stipulated that the Governor General in Council will impose such assessment as he may deem equitable on all lands at present alienated and paying no public revenue, which have been or may be proved to be held under illegal or invalid titles.The Governor General in Council, however, at the same time that he is desirous of recovering the public dues from lands which have been illegally alienated, is equally solicitous that persons holding such grants under titles that are declared valid should be secured in that possession and enjoyment of their property.It is likewise his wish that the recovery of the dues of Government from those lands which have been illegally alienated previous to the 1th December, 1790, should be attended with as little distress as possible to the possessors; and, to obviate all injustice or extortion in the inquiry into the titles of persons holding exempted lands, he has further resolved that the claims of the public on their lands (provided they register the grants as required in this Regulation) shall be tried in the Courts of Judicature, that no such exempted lands may be subjected to the payment of revenue until the titles of the proprietor shall have been adjudged invalid by a final judicial decree.Upon the above grounds, and with a view to facilitate the recovery of the public dues from lands held exempted under invalid grants, as well as to prevent any similar alienations being hereafter made, to the prejudice of the security of the public revenue which has been assessed in perpetuity upon the estates of individuals; and further, that Government and the officers employed in the collection of the public revenue may at all times have in their possession a correct register of the lands in the several zilas held exempt from the payment of revenue, the following rules, containing the rules passed on the 1st December, 1790, with modifications, have been enacted.
