S.V.R.B.K.R. Gopalan vs The Estates Abolition Tribunal And Anr. on 13 October, 1959
The decision was rendered prior to the amendment of the Madras Estates Land Act in 1934, which introduced Section 20-A. That the principle of the cases which we have cited above would hold good even after the amendment is made clear by the the decision in Ramaswami Gounder v. Ramaswami Gounder (1942) 2 M.L.J. 595 : I.L.R. (1943) Mad. 331. It was held in the latter case, that, where the proprietary rights of the landholders of an estate in the tank-beds were unaffected by custom, the ryots of the village would have no interest in the land apart from the right to use the water therein for the purpose of cultivating their holdings, and that the landholder would be entitled to cultivate such parts of the bed of the tank as become exposed when the water receded in the dry season, provided that the cultivation did not prevent the water spreading when the rains came. The result of the decision is that it would be open to the proprietor to cultivate the tank-bed in cases where there was no customary right in the ryots prohibiting such cultivation, and that the right of the latter was only a right to secure the proper maintenance on the part of the landholder of the tanks so as to afford the accustomed supply of water for their holding. Therefore, when at the date of commencement of the Estates Land Act an irrigation tank in the estate existed, the tank-bed would continue as a tank-bed thereafter, notwithstanding the cultivation thereof by the landholder. Such cultivation is allowed by reason of the right of the proprietor over the property (without prejudice to the rights if any of the ryots), and not because that the land gets converted into a ryoti or private land thereby. The existence of a proprietary right in the tank, which enabled the landholder to cultivate tank-bed lands, is by itself of no importance for the purpose of determining the scope of the Statutory rights which will be claimed under Section 13 of Act XXVI of 1948. Prior to 1934 what was a tank-bed on the date Act I of 1908 came into force continued as a tank-bed land. Section 20-A of the Estates Land Act, which was introduced into the main Act by Madras Act VIII of 1935, provided for the conversion of the tank-bed among other communal lands into ryoti lands. That section, so far as it is necessary for the present case, runs: