A Karnikam service inam can be resumed by the Zamindar under S. 17 of the Madras Proprietary Estates Village Services Act, 1894 (II of 1894).

Judgment

HIDAYATULLAH, J. : This is an appeal with special leave against a judgment in second appeal of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh, by which a suit filed by the appellant was ordered to be dismissed, thus reversing the judgments and decrees of the two Courts below.

2. The suit was simple, but as it went on from appeal to appeal, It has widened out. It was filed by the appellant for ejectment of the respondent from 4.80 acres of jeroyti land bearing R. S. No. 186/1-2 in Nedunuru Village and for mesne profits. The suit was based on a kadapa executed by the respondent agreeing to pay an annual rent of 58 bags of paddy and a sum of Rs. 38/- towards thirwa and cesses, the appellant undertaking to pay the jeroyti tax. The respondent agreed to vacate the land peacefully at the end of the year of tenancy. This kadapa is Ex. A-1 dated April 4, 1951. Similarly, yearly kadapas were executed in earlier years, and some of them executed between 1931 and 1948 were also produced in the case.

3. The respondent, however, raised many pleas. He denied that the land was jeroyti land, and alleged that it was part of a Dharmila inam land bearing R. S. No. 186/1-2, that the inam was granted to the appellant s predecessors more than 100 years ago, that the respondent s ancestors were ryots of that land from the very beginning, though muchalikas were taken from them every year and were executed by him and also his predecessors out of ignorance and under threats. The respondent claimed the kudiwaram rights for himself and averred that the appellant had only the melwaram rights which she lost, as they became vested in the Government after the Estates Abolition Act. He, therefore, contended that the appellant was now entitled only to a right to compensation, but had no right to the kudiwaram or the right to bring the present suit. The respondent also alleged that the appellant s husband who was a karnam had himself made entries in the Adangal accounts which he maintained, showing the suit land as Dharmila inam.

4. The appellant did not seek permission of the Court to file a rejoinder to the pleas of the respondent, but must be taken to have denied them. It appears that in the trial her stand was that this was not Sarvadumbala inam but a Karnikam service inam, i.e., an inam in lieu of wages for village service, which was resumed by the Zamindar of Pithapurarn, who granted a jeroyti patta (Ex. A-5) on September I, 1925 to Vakkalanka Venkatasubbarayudu, the predecessor of the appellant. The question which was thus tried by the District Munsif, Amalapuram, embraced an issue as to whether the suit land was a Dumbala Dharmila inam before 1925 and had continued till the Estates Abolition Act was passed and enforced, or whether it was a Karnikam service inam granted by the Zamindar of Pithapuram, who could and did resume it in 1925 regranting the land to Vakkalanka Venkatasubbarayudu. It is clear that if the suit land was a Dharmila Dumbala inam,. the appellant would have had only melwaram rights, which she must be deemed to have lost under the Estates Abolition Act and consequently the respondent would now be considered to have become a ryot. If the suit land was a Karnikam service inan.., then the resumption by the Zamindar of Pithapuram in 1925 would be valid and the regrant to Venkatasubbarayudu would make him a tenant and the respondent, a sub-tenant liable to ejectment according to the terms of the kadapa executed by him. Unfortunately, by reason of the fact that the pleas on the subject of Dharmila inam were exclusively raised in the written statement, which pleas were not traversed by the appellant, the issue framed was:

"whether the suit land is a Dharmila inam and if so, whether the suit in ejectment is maintainable?"

The issues whether the land was a Karnikam service inam and whether there was a valid resumption and a valid re-grant, were not framed. Before the District Munsif, Amalapuram, however, parties led their evidence on the issue, as if it emb