Case: Khajamian Wakf Estates &amp; Others Vs. State of Madras &amp; Others

be correct, it cannot be said that no compensation was provided for the acquisition of the Inam as a whole. Hence Art. 31-A bars the plea that there was contravention of Art. 31 (2) in making the acquisition in question. One of the contentions taken on behalf of the appellants is that the impugned Acts to the extent they purport to acquire mining lands are outside the purview of Art. 31-A It is not known whether the lands in which mining operations are going on were let or held as estates". There is also no evidence to show that the owners of those lands are entitled to the mines Hence it is not possible to uphold the contention that lands concerned in some of the appeals have been acquired without paying compensation.9. In order to avoid the bar of Art. 31-A, a curious plea was put forward. It was urged that when the concerned bills were submitted to the President for his assent as required by the first proviso to Art. 31-A, the President was not made aware of the Implications of the bills. This contention is a wholly untenable one. There Is no material before us from which we could, conclude that the President or his advisers were unaware of the implications of those bills. We must proceed on the basis that the President had given his assent to those bills after duly considering the implication of the provisions contained therein.10. It was next urged that the provisions in the impugned Acts reducing the liability of the tenants in the matter of payment of the arrears of rent, whether decreed or not were beyond the legislative competence of the State legislature. This contention is again untenable. Those arrears are either arrears of rent or debts due from agriculturists. If they are treated as arrears of rent then the State legislature had legislative power to legislate in respect of the same under Entry 18 of List II of the VIIth Schedule. If they are considered as debts due from the agriculturists then the State legislature had competence to legislate in respect of the same under Entry 30 of the same list.11. In regard to the Inams belonging to the religious and charitable institutions, the impugned Acts do not provide for payment of compensation in a lump sum but on the other hand provision is made to pay them a portion of the compensation every year as Tasdik. This is only a mode of payment of the compensation. That mode was evidently adopted in the interest of the concerned institutions. We are unable to agree that the method adopted is violative of Art. 31 (2). At any rate that provision is protected by Art 31-A.12. It was next urged that by acquiring the properties belonging to religious denominations, the legislature violated Art. 26 (c) and (d) which provide that religious denominations shall have the right to own and acquire movable and immovable property and administer such property in accordance with law. These provisions do not take away the right of the State to acquire property belonging to religious denominations. Those denominations can own, acquire properties and administer them in accordance with law. That does not mean that the properly owned by them cannot be acquired. As a result of acquisition they cease to own that property. Thereafter their right to administer that property ceases because it is no longer their property. Article 26 does not interfere with the right of the State to acquire property.13. Mr. S. V. Gupte appearing for some of the appellants urged that the impugned Act contravenes the second proviso to Art. 31-A. From the material before us it is not possible to hold that any property under the personal cultivation of any of the appellants had been acquired. Further there is no material to show what ceiling is? Hence it is not possible for us to examine the correctness of that contention. If in any particular case, the second proviso to Art. 31-A has been breached, then to that extent, the acquisition will become invalid.14. It was urged by Mr. Sastri, appearing for some of the appellants that the impugned Acts do not acquire the lands concerned in some of the appeals. This contention was not gone into by the High Court. Dealing with that contention, the High Court in its judgment observed:"But the applicability of the impugned Acts to the Inams in question cannot be conveniently investigated in the present writ proceedings. The question will have to be determined with reference to the terms of the grant, the extent of the grant has to be ascertained by reference to the relevant materials. Section 5 of Madras Act XXXI of 1963 (XXX of 1963 ?) makes special provision for determination of the question whether any non-ryotwari area is or is not an existing Inam Estate or part village Inam Estate, or a minor Inam or whole Inam village in Pudukkottai. It is stated at the bar that in most of the cases now before us the parties have applied under the provisions of the said Act for determination of the character of the Inams respectively held by them. It is needless to point out that the Tribunal constituted under the Act will be entitled to decide that a particular property is neither an existing Inam estate nor a part village Inam estate nor a whole Inam village in Pudukkottai and completely out of the coverage of Acts XXV. and XXX of 1963. We also make it clear that the disposal of these writ petitions now does not preclude the Inamdars from agitating the question that a particular property is not an inam at all and does not fall under any of the aforesaid four categories or falls under one or other of the categories as may he urged for the inamdars."15. We agree with the High Court that the contention in question can be more appropriately gone into in the manner suggested by the High Court.

Decision (1 = appeal accepted, 0 = rejected): 0

Explanation:
0[ds]We have not thought it necessary to go into the question whether as a result of Madras Act 40 of 1956, certain Inams have ceased to be Inams, as in our opinion, whether they continued to be Inams or not they are still "estate" within the meaning of Art. 31-A because they fall either under sub-clauses (I) or (II) or (III) of Clause (a) of Art. 31-A (2) and that being so the provisions of the impugned Acts cannot be challenged on the ground that they infringe Arts. 14, 19 and 31.The contention that as the State purported to abolish Inams and not other intermediaries the law cannot be held to be valid if the intermediaries sought to be removed are not Inamdars is an untenable one. If the impugned legislation can be traced to a valid legislative power the fact that the legislature wrongly described some of the intermediaries sought to be removed does not make the law invalid. From the above observations, it should not be understood that we have come to the conclusion that the intermediaries concerned were not Inamdars. We have not gone into that question. From the provisions of the impugned Acts, it is quite clear that the intention of the legislature was to abolish all intermediaries including the owners of those "estates" that were subjected to full assessment by Act 40 ofcontention bears only on the provisions of the Madras Act 26 of 1963 Section 18 of that Act provides that compensation shall be determined for each Inam as a whole and not separately for each of the interests in the Inams. The validity of this section was not challenged before us. All that was urged was that for some of the properties included in the Inam, no compensation was provided. Even if we assume this contention to be correct, it cannot be said that no compensation was provided for the acquisition of the Inam as a whole. Hence Art. 31-A bars the plea that there was contravention of Art. 31 (2) in making the acquisition in question. One of the contentions taken on behalf of the appellants is that the impugned Acts to the extent they purport to acquire mining lands are outside the purview of Art. 31-A It is not known whether the lands in which mining operations are going on were let or held as estates". There is also no evidence to show that the owners of those lands are entitled to the mines Hence it is not possible to uphold the contention that lands concerned in some of the appeals have been acquired without payingcontention is again untenable. Those arrears are either arrears of rent or debts due from agriculturists. If they are treated as arrears of rent then the State legislature had legislative power to legislate in respect of the same under Entry 18 of List II of the VIIth Schedule. If they are considered as debts due from the agriculturists then the State legislature had competence to legislate in respect of the same under Entry 30 of the same list.11. In regard to the Inams belonging to the religious and charitable institutions, the impugned Acts do not provide for payment of compensation in a lump sum but on the other hand provision is made to pay them a portion of the compensation every year as Tasdik. This is only a mode of payment of the compensation. That mode was evidently adopted in the interest of the concerned institutions. We are unable to agree that the method adopted is violative of Art. 31 (2). At any rate that provision is protected by Artprovisions do not take away the right of the State to acquire property belonging to religious denominations. Those denominations can own, acquire properties and administer them in accordance with law. That does not mean that the properly owned by them cannot be acquired. As a result of acquisition they cease to own that property. Thereafter their right to administer that property ceases because it is no longer their property. Article 26 does not interfere with the right of the State to acquirethe material before us it is not possible to hold that any property under the personal cultivation of any of the appellants had been acquired. Further there is no material to show what ceiling is? Hence it is not possible for us to examine the correctness of that contention. If in any particular case, the second proviso to Art. 31-A has been breached, then to that extent, the acquisition will become invalid.We agree with the High Court that the contention in question can be more appropriately gone into in the manner suggested by the High Court.