Case: The State of Madras represented by The Collector of Ramanathapuram Vs. Karumuthu Thiagarajan Chettiar

is the fact that the entire area originally granted retains its character as an inam."In so observing Govinda Menon, J. stated that the Court was inclined to agree with the view expressed by Subba Rao, J. in AIR 1953 Mad 246 (P. 25), and the following formulae devised by the learned Judge:"First find out whether original grant was of the whole village. If it is established the next question is whether the confirmation or recognition was of the entire grant or a part of the grant. If the entire grant was confirmed or recognised the process of confirmation or recognition or the fact that different title deeds were issued or the grant was recognised by separate acts should not matter, for in either case the original grant which was of the entire village should be confirmed or recognised by the Government."10. It needs to be emphasized that the Court was not called upon in Bhavnarayanas case, ILR (1954) Mad l16 : (AIR 1954 Mad 415 FB) to deal with a case in which the Inam Commissioner having held that there was a grant of the whole village had confirmed only a part of the village granted. Basheer Ahmed Sayeed, J. observed that it being conceded at the Bar that what was originally granted had been confirmed by the Inam Commissioner and the requirements of S. 3(2)(d) of the Madras Estates Land Act in regard to confirmation or recognition by the Government had been satisfied, there was no point in the contention that the entire village as such had not been confirmed or recognised by the Government when the title deed was granted.11. Venkatarama Aiyar, J. proceeded to enter upon an exhaustive review of the case law and made the observations which are relied upon by the State of Madras. He emphasized that the confirmation is of the act of making a grant and has no relation to the extent of the properties covered by it. That statement is only partially true : as pointed out by Govinda Menon, J. if the totality of the grant is confirmed by the issue even of separate title deeds, the original grant would be deemed confirmed. But the whole grant must be confirmed by one or more title deeds. Venkatararua Aiyar, J. then observed that if the Government was satisfied that the grant was true and made by the proper person, then it was to confirm it, and that there could be no question of a grant being confirmed in part and disaffirmed in part. If this observation (which was for the purpose of deciding the case wholly unnecessary) is intended to convey that in ascertaining whether the Inam village of which the grant has been confirmed is an estate, regard must be had to what was granted by the original conveyance and all subsequent dealings by the grantor or by the confirming authority must be ignored, with respect, the observation cannot be accepted as correct. There is nothing to which our attention has been invited in the provisions of the relevant regulations and the rules framed by the Government which prevented the Inam Commissioner from declining to recognise the title of holders of Inam land in part and recognising the title to the rest. The exercise of the right of confirmation was an incident of sovereignty and in the absence of an obligation imposed by statute, the Inam Commissioner as a representative of the sovereign authodty was not compelled to recognise the rights of all persons in possession of land which was originally granted in Inam.By confirming the grant of a part of the area of the village in favour of some persons, the Commissioner could not be assumed to have confirmed the entire grant. By recognising the title of a holder of land forming part of a village originally granted in Inam, the Inam Commissioner undoubtedly recognised his title derived from the original grantee, but thereby he did not confirm the grant of the village. The confirmation of the grant of the village takes place only when the entirety of the grant is recognised either in a single individual or a group of individuals.12. The enquiry before the Inam Commissioner involved at least two distinct steps :(i) Enquiry as to what was the original grant; and(ii) What are should be confirmed or recoginsed in favour of a claimant. In holding an enquiry into the first step, the Inam Commissioner could not be seeking to confirm or recognise the grant.The Commissioner was thereby laying a foundation for making the order of confirmation or recognition. In assuming that a conclusion on the first automatically resulted in confirmation of the grant the learned Judge obliterated the distinction between the two. In our view the formula devised by Subba Rao, J. in Somasundarams case, AIR 1953 Mad 246 is substantially correct.13. Nistala Seshayya Bhukta v. Vasu Bageyya. ILR (1962) Andh Pra 1 : (AIR 1962 Andh Pra 37 FB) on which reliance was placed by counsel for the State of Madras really fell under explanation (3) in S. 3 (2) and with that explanation we are not concerned in the present appeal. That was a case where a part of the original pre-British grant of the whole village had been resumed by the British Government and what was confirmed was the rest of the grant. It was found that by the time of the Inam enquiry the village minus what was resumed, was understood to be the Inam village and that was confirmed. It was no doubt also held that as the entire area that was available for confirmation was confirmed, the case came within cl. (b) of S. 3 (2). This is not the case before us for here was nothing to prevent the Inam Commissioner from confirming as part of the original grant, the lands in the possession of zamindar of Shivganga; the entire area of the village was available to him for confirmation. We do not think that this case affords any assistance.

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

Explanation:
1[ds]7. An Inam village is an "estate" within the meaning of S. 3(2) (d) of the Madras Estates Land Act if the grant was made, confirmed or recognised by the Government notwithstanding that subsequent to the grant, the village has been partitioned among the grantees or theof the grantee or grantees. In the present case the grant was not made by the British Government, it was a grant confirmed or recognised by that Government. Confirmation of the grant of a named village, is within S. 3(2) (d) if some lands had previous to the grant been alienated by the proprietor, and he was by virtue of the alienation incompetent to convey the entire area of the village. That is made explicit by the Explanation which was added by the Madras Estates Land (Amendment) Act, II of 1945.The enquiry before the Inam Commissioner involved at least two distinct stepsEnquiry as to what was the original grant; and(ii) What are should be confirmed or recoginsed in favour of a claimant. In holding an enquiry into the first step, the Inam Commissioner could not be seeking to confirm or recognise the grant.The Commissioner was thereby laying a foundation for making the order of confirmation or recognition. In assuming that a conclusion on the first automatically resulted in confirmation of the grant the learned Judge obliterated the distinction between the two. In our view the formula devised by Subba Rao, J. in Somasundarams case, AIR 1953 Mad 246   is substantially correct.13. Nistala Seshayya Bhukta v. Vasu Bageyya. ILR (1962) Andh Pra 1 : (AIR 1962 Andh Pra 37 FB) on which reliance was placed by counsel for the State of Madras really fell under explanation (3) in S. 3 (2) and with that explanation we are not concerned in the present appeal. That was a case where a part of the originalgrant of the whole village had been resumed by the British Government and what was confirmed was the rest of the grant. It was found that by the time of the Inam enquiry the village minus what was resumed, was understood to be the Inam village and that was confirmed. It was no doubt also held that as the entire area that was available for confirmation was confirmed, the case came within cl. (b) of S. 3 (2). This is not the case before us for here was nothing to prevent the Inam Commissioner from confirming as part of the original grant, the lands in the possession of zamindar of Shivganga; the entire area of the village was available to him for confirmation. We do not think that this case affords any assistance.