Judgment

Patanjali Sastri, J. :- This is an appeal from a judgment of the High Court of Judicature in West Bengal reversing a finding of the Second Subordinate Judge of 24 Parganas at Alipore that he had jurisdiction to proceed with a suit after substituting the Province of East Bengal (in Pakistan) in the place of the old Province of Bengal against which the suit had originally been brought.

2. The facts leading to the institution of the suit are not in dispute. The Bengal Agricultural Income-tax Act was passed by the Provincial Legislature of Bengal in1944. It applied to the whole of Bengal and purported to bring under charge the agricultural income of, inter alia, every Ruler of an Indian State." Acting under the provisions of that Act, which came into force on 1-4-1944, the Income-tax Officer, Dacca Range, sent by registered post, a notice to the Manager of the Zamindari Estate called Chakla Roshanabad belonging to the Tripura State but situated in Bengal outside the territories of that State, calling upon him to furnish a return of the total income derived in the previous year from lands in the Estate used for agricultural purposes. The notice was received by the Manager at Ag