Judgment

MITTER, J.: This is an appeal by special leave from an order of the Madhya Pradesh High Court under Article 227 of the Constitution refusing to quash an order made by the Board of Revenue of the State throwing out the appeal of the appellant on the ground that it was barred by time.

2. The facts are as follows. The appellant was a Sardar and a Jagirdar in the former Gwalior State. His Jagir known as Pohari Jagir was resumed by the State on December 4, 1952 under the Madhya Bharat Abolition of Jagirs Act, 28 of 1951. He received a memorandum from the Jagir Commissioner on February 23, 1958 regarding the compensation payable to him under Section 13 of the Act in respect of the resumption of his jagir. On February 24, 1958 he applied to the Jagir Commissioner for a copy of the judgment. The memorandum received by him gave the total amount of compensation determined and the deductions to be made therefrom. It did not contain the data forming the basis of the calculations nor did it show how the authority disposed of the appellant s claim to compensation and made its own computation. At the hearing, a copy of the judgment of the Jagir Commissioner running into twenty-three pages was handed up to us giving full details of the claim and showing how the same were dealt with for fixing the amount payable to the appellant.

3. It appears that the application of the appellant for a copy of the judgment was returned to him on March 11, 1958, with an endorsement that the same could be had on payment of fees. On the very next day the appellant applied for a copy of the judgment after paying the fees mentioned and a copy of the judgment was given to him on March 18, 1958. The appellant preferred his appeal to the Board of Revenue on June 2, 1958. As already stated, the Board did not go into the merits of the case holding the appeal to be barred by time under the provisions of Section 20 of the Act.

4. It is necessary to note a few of the provisions of the Madhya Bharat Abolition of Jagirs Act, 1951 (hereinafter referred to as the Act ) to find out whether the appeal to the Board of Revenue was out of time. Under Section 3 of the Act the Government had to appoint a date for the resumption of all jagir lands in the State, as soon as may be, after the commencement of the Act. The consequences of the resumption of the jagir land are given in Section 4. By the operation of that section the right, title and interest of every jagirdar and of every other person claiming through him in his jagir lands including forests, trees etc. whether being worked or not, were to stand resumed to the State free of all encumbrances and certain other consequences were to follow. Section 5 of the Act however enabled the Jagirdar to continue to remain in possession of lands personally cultivated by him and of certain other items of property mentioned in cl. (b) of the said section . Under Section 8 the Government was to be liable to pay to every jagirdar whose jagir land was resumed under Section 8 such compensation as would be determined in accordance with the principles laid down in Sch. I. Under S. 12 every Jagirdar whose jagir land had been resumed under S. 3 was to file in the prescribed form within two months from the date of resumption, a statement of claim for compensation before the Jagir Commissioner. Sub-section (2) of the section prescribed the particulars which such statement of claim had to furnish. On receipt of a statement of claim under Section 12 or if no statement was received by him within the period fixed, it was the duty of the Jagir Commissioner to determine (a) the amount of compensation payable to the Jagirdar under Section 8; (b) the amount recoverable from under cl. (e) of sub-section (1) of Section 4; (c) the amounts of the annual maintenance allowances payable to maintenance holders, if any, under Section 9; (d) the amounts payable annually to the Zamindars of the Jagirdar, if any under Sec. 10 and (e) the amount payable to the co-sh