The construction of the grant document and the determination of the nature of the land tenure were central to the court's decision.

Sir John Beaumont.-

This is a consolidated appeal by special leave from a decision of the High Court of Judicature at Madras dated 30th July 1946. At the conclusion of the arguments their Lordships announced that they would humbly advise His Majesty that this appeal be dismissed with costs, and they now give their reasons.

2. The consolidated suits out of which this appeal arises were filed in the year 1939 by the respondents as ryots against the appellants as landowners in the Court of the Deputy Collector Salem, claiming a grant of pattas under S. 55, Madras Estates Land Act of 1908. The respondents claimed rights of permanent occupancy in the lands held by them in the village of Bairoji, District Salem, on the ground that such lands formed part of an estate as defined by the Madras Estates Land Act of 1908 as amended by the Madras Estates Land (Third Amendment) Act, 1936. The appellants denied that the lands formed part of an estate, and claimed that the said Acts had no application to the case.

3. By S. 3 (2) (d) of the Act of 1908 "Estate" is defined as meaning any village of which the land-revenue alone has been granted in inam to a person not owning the kudivaram thereof, provided that the grant has been made, confirmed or recognized by the British Government, or any separated part of such village. It is not disputed that the appellants owned the kudivaram as well as the melvaram in the lands in question, and that such lands therefore did not come within the above definition.

4. However, S. 2 of the said amending Act of 1936 provides that for sub.cl. (d) of cl. 2 of the Act of 1908 the following sub-clause shall be substituted, viz.:

"Any inam village of which the grant has been made, confirmed or recognized by the British Government, notwithstanding that subsequent to the grant, the village has been partitioned among the grantees or the successors in title of the grantee or grantees.

Explanation (1)- Where an inam village is resumed by the Government, it shall cease to be an estate; but, if any village so resumed is subsequently regranted by the Government as an inam, it shall from the date of such re-grant, be regarded as an estate.

Explanation (2)- Where a portion of an inam village is resumed by the Government, such portion shall cease to be part of the estate, but the rest of the village shall be deemed to be an inam village for the purposes of this sub-clause. If the portion so resumed or any part thereof is subsequently re-granted by the Government as an inam, such portion or part shall, from the date of such re-grant, be regarded as forming part of the inam village for the purposes of this sub-clause."

5. Upon this definition two arguments were addressed to the Board on behalf of the appellants. First that the village in which the lands are situated is not an inam village, but is held on ryotwari tenure; secondly that, even if the village is an inam village, the grant thereof did not comprise the whole inam village and on that ground also it was not brought within the definition.

6. The early history of the village of Bairoji appears from entries in the Inam Register of 1865, Ex. A. It appears that the village in pre-British times was granted as a sarva inam (free of assessment) to two persons who divided the village into 54 vritties or shares, and that subsequently the properties were either sold or given to a community of Brahmins. During the rule of Tippu Sultan a jodi or quit rent of 1280 pagodas was fixed as payable to the Government by the persons in possession. In 1795 one Captain Maclean fixed the jodi at 1026 pagodas, equivalent to Rs. 1,294-9-0. In making this settlement he converted 81 acres which had been zufted, or attached for non-payment of government revenue, into ryotwari lands, the rest of the village being retained as inam. The part converted into ryotwari tenure was only 2 7/8 shares out of the 54 shares. At the time of the Inam Settlement in 1865 the total assessment was shown as Rs. 3, 420-13-1 divi