Judgment

MITTER, J.:- The State of Madhya Pradesh has come up in appeal to this Court from two orders of the State High Court allowing two writ petitions filed by the two respondents herein for quashing the orders of eviction made against them under S. 3 of the Madhya Pradesh Government Premises (Eviction) Act.

2. The facts in Civil Appeal No. 1164 of 1967 are as follows. Many years back a former Ruler of the Indian State of Jhabua in Central India had given a jagir to his mistress Paswanji Smt. Navratanbai. Navratanbai had either purchased or constructed two houses on College Marg. According to the Writ Petition filed in the High Court the acquisition was out of her private funds. This was not however admitted in the return to the petition. The successor of the fonder Ruler Dilipsingh purported to forfeit the jagir in the year 1943. The order of forfeiture is not on record but is sought to be borne out by an order. dated 1st April 1948, evidently made in anticipation of the merger of the State in the Union of Madhya Bharat which took place on June 29, 1948. The order addressed to Paswanji Navratanbai ran:

"In September, 1943 your jagir was confiscated to the State and you were wanted Rs. 100/- per month by way of allowance vide Parwana No. 1735, dated 23-9-1943 and this amount was being paid to you on behalf of the Huzur from the civil list because such types of allowances etc. are paid from it. But now as new arrangements are being made regarding the States of Malwa and there is like hood of reduction in the percentage of the civil list therefore the aforesaid monthly allowance shall henceforth be paid to you every month from State Treasury from generation to generation.

You may reside in the two big houses of Khasgi during your lifetime in which you are residing at present. After your lifetime both these houses shall be taken in possession of the Huzur. You shall have no right to sell or mortgage or create any charge on these houses."

There is another Huzur order on record dated 30th March 1948 purporting to declare a large number of immovable properties as the private property of the Ruler and the ruling family. Among the properties set out at the foot of the order are mentioned:

"6. (e) All houses which are occupied by Babu RamSingh

(f) All houses which are in the occupancy of Navratanbai".

When the question of settling list of private properties of the Rulers of the integrating States in Madhya Bharat came up before the Government of India, the Political and External Department of the Madhya Bharat Secretariat passed an order recording a decision regarding the settlement of private properties of the State of Jhabua. The memorandum dated July 25, 1949 of the Madhya Bharat Secretariat, Political and External Department, shows that each department concerned had to take action for handing over all the property to the Ruler concerned and to see that no property out of the properties belonging to the Ruler and or the State before the formation of Madhya Bharat was left with the Ruler excepting the properties in the enclosed list. The relevant list for the Ruler of Jhabua did not include the proper ties occupied either by Bapu Ramsingh or Paswanji Navratanbai. Paswanji Navratanbai protested against the inclusion other houses in the list of private properties made out by the Ruler of Jhabua and addressed a memorandum to the Raj Pramukh of Madhya Bharat Union for amendment of the inventory submitted by the said Ruler. No steps appear to have been taken to evict Navratanbai from the said premises in her lifetime. On 30th April 1962 the Executive Engineer, District Dhar, submitted an application under S. 3 read with S. 4 of the Madhya Pradesh Government Premises (Eviction) Act, 1952 for the eviction of the respondents in Appeal No. 1164 of 1967 from the two properties formerly belonging to Navratanbai before the Sub Divisional Officer, Jhabua, constituted the competent authority under the Act. An order of eviction made by the Sub Divisio