Judgement

Appeal (No. 50 of 1939), by special leave, from a judgment and decree of the Additional Judicial Commissioner in Baluchistan (November 6 and 19, 1936, respectively).

In 1880 one Mir Dur Mohammad Khan, the predecessor in title of the present respondents, obtained from the then Khan of Kalat a grant (sanad) of a large tract of waste land situated in the Nasirabad Tahsil of his State. The land was declared to have been "given" to the grantee for Rs. 40,000, and the grant was made in contemplation of the excavation by the grantee of an extension of the Desert Canal. The grantee duly paid the price, and he and his heirs were in possession of the land when, on February 17, 1903, the then Khan executed an agreement, called a "Treaty," whereby he made over and ceded in perpetuity to the British Government the entire management of the Nasirabad Niabat absolutely, and with all the rights and privileges, state or personal, as well as full and exclusive revenue, civil and criminal jurisdiction and all other powers of administration, including all rights to levy dues and tolls. The British Government took early steps to arrange for the revenue administration, and a record of rights wa