Lord Buckmaster:-

The river Ganges in its course through the district of Dacca rests so uneasily in its bed, that its boundaries can never at any moment be defined with the certainty that their limitation will be long observed. Frequently the river leaves its course, flows over large tracts of land, leaving other areas bare, and then again its waters recede, giving back the lands submerged in whole or in part to use and cultivation. It is obvious that difficulties as to ownership must arise in these circumstances, and of the extent and complication of these difficulties, the present case affords an excellent illustration. The general law that is applicable is free from doubt. The bed of a public navigable river is the property of the Government, though the banks may be the subject of private ownership. If there be slow accretion to the land on either side, due, for instance, to the gradual accumulation of silt, this forms part of the estate of the riparian owner to whose bank the accretion has been made. (See Regulation XI of 1825). If private property be submerged and subsequently again left bare by the water, it belongs to the original owner, Lopez v. Muddun Mohun Thakoor [1870] 1