Judgment

BHARGAVA, J.: The appellants are admittedly the joint owners of Bungalow No. 45, situated along Tagore Road, in the Cantonment of Kanpur. These premises are recorded in the General Land Register of the Cantonment as occupancy land on old grant terms. It appears that the words "old grant terms" referred to grants made by the Government under the General Order of the Governor-General in Council dated 12th September, 1836 .Subsequently, the first Act to be passed in respect of these lands was the Cantonments Act No. 13 of 1889. This was followed by Cantoments Act No. 15 of 1910 and Cantonments Code. 1912. These were amended by Cantonments Act No. 2 of 1924 which still continues to be in force. On the 26th June 1925, Rules were framed for the first time under section 280 of the Cantonments Act of 1924, regulating administration of Cantonment lands. These Rules were, however, superseded by fresh Rules by Government notification dated 23rd November, 1937. The new Rules are described as "Cantonments Land Administration Rules, 1937". Under these Rules, a provision was made in rule 27 for regularisation of old grants by issue of fresh leases. The appellants did not have any documents to show how the original title of their predecessors was acquired in respect of these lands. The earliest document, which the appellants could produce, was a sale-deed executed by Ram Nath and others, sons of Roop Kishore, in favour of Dost Mohammad Estate, on the 8th September, 1943. This document recited that Roop Kishore, the father of vendors Ram Nath and others, purchased the property in various instalments by documents executed between the years 1901 and 1908. The appellants acquired the rights to the Bungalow by a sale-deed executed in their favour by Dost Mohammad Estate on 30th April, 1958. After taking this sale-deed, they applied for mutation to Cantonment authorities; but objections were raised and the authorities did not agree to mutate the names of the appellants until the appellants agreed to give an undertaking to be bound by the terms of the Governor General s Order of September 12, 1836. Their names were then mutated on 13th September, 1961, which had to be followed by a deed of admission executed by the appellants on 15th September, 1961. Subsequently, the appellants approached the authorities to get their rights defined and to have their possession regularised under R. 27 of the Rules of 1937. The request not having been granted, the appellants, on 12th April, 1966, moved the Military Estates Officer, Lucknow for the same purpose and, according to the appellants, no attention was paid to this request of theirs. On 15th October, 1966, they sent a reminder to the Military Estates Officer, Lucknow and, in addition, requested him to supply them with a form prescribed by Schedule V of the Rules of 1937. It may be mentioned that the lease under Rule 27 was required to be executed in the form in Schedule VII and not in Schedule V. On 25th October 1966, the Military Estates Officer wrote to the appellants to collect the form from the Cantonment Executive Officer, Kanpur Cantonment, who was the Agent of the Military Estates Officer, and to submit it, after completion, to the Military Estates Officer, Lucknow, along with a site plan. The letter contained an additional sentence that this reply sent also disposed of the earlier letter of the appellants dated 12th April, 1966.

2. The appellants had also, in the meantime, moved the Defence Ministry by a letter dated 27th August,1966, for grant of a lease under Rule 27 read with Schedule VII of the Rules of 1937, quoting an instance of one Mr. Packwood, resident of Kanpur Cantonment, in whose case a similar lease had already been issued. By the letter dated 25th October, 1966, the Joint Secretary to the Defence Ministry informed the appellants that a lease under Rule 27 and Schedule VII could not be granted; but, if the appellants so desired, the Government were prepared to consider their case