Judgement

Consolidated Appeals (No. 37 of 1945) from three decrees of the High Court (November 18, 1941) affirming three decrees of the Court of the Subordinate Judge of Coconada (January 14, 1937) in suits instituted by the appellant, the Maharaja of Pittapuram, against the respondent, the Province of Madras, in which he claimed the ownership of certain alluvial islands, called "lankas," in the bed of the river Godavari.

The following facts are taken from the judgment of the Judicial Committee. On May 5, 1803, a sanad or deed of permanent property was granted by Lord Clive, then Governor-in-Council of Fort St. George, to the appellants predecessor-in-title, settling in perpetuity the assessment of the zamindari of Pittapuram and authorizing the appellants predecessor-in-title to hold the zamindari in perpetuity to his heirs, successors and assigns on condition of his performing certain stipulations specified in the deed and the duties of his allegiance to the British government. The sanad did not define or describe the lands of the Pittapuram zamindari but it was not disputed that they included lands on the east side of the river Godavari and a number of lankas in the river bed. The village of Mulakallanka was part of the lands included in the zamindari at the date of the sanad, and it was near that lanka that the lankas which were the subject of the suit were situated. Those lankas did not exist in 1861, for in that year the Revenue Department of the government of India had the locality surveyed and the survey plans showed no trace of their existence. They had appeared, however, by 1901, as was shown by the survey of the river undertaken then by the River Conservancy authorities. The exact date of their appearance was unproved, but after their formation the then zamindar of Pittapuram took possession of them and leased such portions as were suitable for cultivation to tenants. That continued until the year 1921, when the appellant was called on to show cause why he should not be proceeded against under the Madras Land Encroachment Act of 1905 for unauthorized occupation of land belonging to the government. After much correspondence a demand for the revenue assessed on the new lankas for the years 1917 to 1926, amounting to Rs. 116,229-2-8, was made on the appellant, who paid it under protest on June 1, 1927. On June 26, 1927, the appellant was called on to vacate the new lankas and was informed that in default he would be summarily evicted. Thereupon he instituted the present proceedings by filing his plaint, in what came to be known later as the main suit, in the Court of the Subordinate Judge of Coconada on July 4, 1927. Plaints in connected and supplementary suits were filed in the same court on June 8, 1929, and September 30, 1930, respectively. In the main suit he prayed for, inter alia, a declaration that he was the owner of the eighteen lankas and for directions to the respondent to refund the sum of Rs. 116,229-2-8 which he had paid, under protest, as revenue due thereon.

The appellant originally based his claim chiefly on the proposition that the English common law rules governing riverain rights applied in Madras and that the bed of a navigable river, except where it was tidal, vested in the riparian proprietors and not in the Crown ; but partly oh the ground that the lankas claimed by him were comprehended within the area granted to his predecessor by the sanad, and partly also on the ground that the new lankas were accretions to or reformations in situ of old lankas which were admittedly part of his property, and from which the new formations became separated in course of time through natural causes. He also claimed by adverse possession but that ground was abandoned when the case reached the High Court.

The Subordinate Judge awarded two lankas to the appellant on the ground that they had been accretions to or re-formations in situ of old lankas which were admittedly his property. In the proceedings before the Hi