Judgment

SARKAR, J. : The appellants are traders of Jhalawar. Respondent No. 1, the Collector of Jhalawar, served on the appellants a notice under S. 6 of the Rajasthan Public Demands Recovery Act, 1952, hereafter called the Act, for the recovery from them as a public demand, of Rs. 2,24,607/6/6 said to be due on account of loans taken by them from the Jhalawar State Bank. The appellants filed a petition under S. 8 of the Act contending, among other things, that the amount sought to be recovered from them was not a public demand. Respondent No. 1 appears to have called upon the appellants to prove that it was not a public demand. The appellants without proceeding further before respondent No. 1, filed a petition in the High Court of Rajasthan for the issue of a writ quashing the proceedings under the Public Demands Recovery Act. The High Court dismissed the petition but granted a certificate that the case was fit for an appeal to this Court. Hence the present appeal.

2. The only question raised in this appeal is whether any loan due to the Jhalawar State Bank could be recovered as a public demands. A "public demand" within the meaning of the Act is "any money payable to the Government or to a department or an officer of Government under or in pursuance of a written instrument or agreement". The Government here means that Government of Rajasthan for the Act was passed in 1952 by the Rajasthan State Legislature. The question then is whether money due to the Jhalawar State Bank, is money payable to the Government of Rajasthan.

3. Now, the Jhalawar State Bank was started in 1932. At that time Jhalawar was a ruling State. Sometime in or about April, 1948 the State of Jhalawar, along with nine other ruling States of Rajputana, integrated and formed the United State of Rajasthan under a convenant executed by the Rulers of these States. One of the articles of this convenant provided, "All the assets and liabilities of the covenanting States shall be the assets and liabilities of the Unites State." Subsequently, on March 30, 1949, the States of Bikaner, Jaipur, Jaisalmer and Jodhpur joined the United State of Rajasthan. On the promulgation of the Constitution of India, the United State of Rajasthan became a Part B State in the Indian Union. The assets of the previous ruling State of Jhalawar which had earlier vested in the United State of Rajasthan, thereupon passed to and devolved upon the State of Rajasthan in the Indian Union.

4. The proceedings under the Act against the appellants were started by the filing of a requisition with respondent No. 1 by respondents Nos. 2 and 3 being respectively the Treasury Officer. Jhalawar, and the Recovery Officer, Jhalawar State Bank, under S. 3 of the Act stating that the amount earlier mentioned was due from the appellants to the Government of Rajasthan in respect of the claims of the Jhalawar State Bank against them. This was done presumably shortly prior to June 16, 1953, on which date respondent No. 1 signed a certificate specifying the amount of the demand and certain other particulars and filed it in his own office under S. 4 of the Act. A notice of the signing and filing of the certificate was served upon the appellants under S. 6 of the Act. This notice and the subsequent proceedings have been referred to in the beginning of this judgment.

5. The claim thus is in respect of moneys due to the Jhalawar State Bank. If that Bank was not the property of the Jhalawar State, then its dues cannot of course be said to have merged in the present State of Rajasthan. The appellants first contended that the Jhalawar State Bank was not the property of the State of Jhalawar. The only material to which we have been referred by the appellants to support of this contention is certain rules framed by the Ruler of Jhalawar in respect of the Bank. It was pointed out that the rules showed that the Bank was like any other commercial enterprise. We are unable to agree that for this reason it could not be an instituti