Judgment

CHINNAPPA REDDY, J. : - This appeal is by a certificate granted by the Madras High Court under Art. 133(l)(c) of the Constitution. The appellant is the State of Tamil Nadu. The respondent is the Ahobila Matam, a well known religious institution. The question relates to the applicability of the Tamil Nadu Inams (Assessment) Act, 1956 in regard to some lands situated in Narasimhapuram, Papanasam taluk, Thanjavur District belonging to the institution. The lands are covered by Inam Title Deed No. 2214 dated July 29, 1881 granted by the Inam Commissioner to the Manager for the time being of Sri Ahobila Matam. By the title deed, the Inam Commissioner, by order of the Governor-in-council of Madras acting on behalf of the Secretary of State for India in Council, acknowledged the title of the Ahobila Matam to "a religious endowment or a Matam Inam consisting of the right to the Government Revenue on land claimed to be acres 28.11 cents of dry, 58.38 acres of wet and 6.83 acres of garden and situated in the whole village of Narasimhapuram besides Poramboke in the taluk of Kumbakonam District of Tanjore and held for the support of the Ahobila Matam" and confirmed the Inam to the Manager for the time being of the Ahobila Matam and his successor "tax-free to be held without interference so long as the conditions are duly fulfilled." The extract of the Inam Fair Registrar mentioned in Column 8 that the grant was made by one of the Tanjore Princes, but that the purpose of the grant was not known. It was presume that the inam was conferred for the benefit of the Matam. Column 13 mentioned the original grantee as the Ahobilam Servatantra Sri Srinivasa Swami, apparently, the then Jeer of the Matam. The recommendation of the Inam Commissioner in Column 22 was that the title deed should be issued in the name of the priest for the time being of the Ahobila Matam. It was in pursuance of this recommendation that Inam Title Deed No. 2214 was issued. Consequent on the enactment of the Madras Inams (Assessment) Act, 1956, the Revenue Divisional Officer, Kumbakonam made an order on February 28, 1963 levying full assessment on the lands. The levy of the assessment was questioned by the Ahobila Matam by a Writ Petition in the Madras High Court. First, a learned single Judge and then, a Division Bench of Madras High Court quashed the assessment on the ground that the proviso to S. 3(l) of the Act prevented the levy of full assessment of lands held on service tenure. The proviso to S. 3(l) of the Act is in the following terms :-

"Provided that in the case of an Inam granted on service tenure which is proved to consist of an assignment of land revenue only, no assessment under this sub-section shall be leviable, and the inamdar shall be liable to pay only the quit-rent, Jodi, Katturbadi or other amount of a like nature, if any, which he has been paying before the commencement of this Act."

The question for consideration, therefore, is whether the Inam was granted on service tenure. The High Court took the view that the expression service tenure was not to be restricted to a service inam and that it would include any grant for the support of a religious or charitable institution. For that purpose reliance was placed on the classification of inams in the Standing Orders of the Board of Revenue. The Standing Orders divided inams into unenfranchised service inams and unenfranchised personal inams. Under the heading of unenfranchised service inams, religious and charitable inams were dealt with in Paragraph 54. Paragraph 54 enjoined a duty on the Collector to see that the inams confirmed by the Inam Commissioner for the benefit of or for service to be rendered to any religious or Charitable institution or for the maintainance of irrigation works or other works of public utility, were not enjoyed without the terms of the grant being fulfilled. Religious and Charitable Inams were further classified and in the first category we get inams granted for the suppor