Wilkinson's Rules were validly made by the Governor-General in Council under Section V of Regulation XIII of 1833 and were continued in force by Section 7 of Act XIV of 1874. Bihar Act III of 1967 was a valid exercise of the State Government's power under Schedule V of the Constitution to make special provisions for the administration of scheduled areas. The Deputy Commissioner had the authority to delegate his powers to the Additional Deputy Commissioner for the trial of civil suits.

Misra, C.J.

This is an application for quashing Kolhan Title Suit no. 3 of 1967 pending in the court of opposite party no. 2, the Additional Deputy Commissioner of Singhbhum. The suit was instituted by opposite party no. 3, Dharamchand Jain, against the petitioner, claiming mainly the relief of recovery of possession of the properties described in the schedule attached to the plaint and the Additional Deputy Commissioner entertained the suit under a rule which is popularly known as Wilkinson's Rules. The petitioner has challenged the validity of these rules in so far as they provide for the maintainability of such title suits in the Court of the Additional Deputy Commissioner.

2. The main ground on which the validity of these rules has been challenged is that Regulation XIII of 1833 provided that the Governor-General of India in Council shall be competent to prescribe such rules as be would deem proper for the guidance of officers for the administration of civil and criminal justice and such rules prescribed by him came to be known as Wilkinson's Rules, but in fact these rules were never made by the Governor-General. The rules were in fact made by Captain T. Wilkinson, who was an Agent to the Governor-General, for the guidance of the officers appointed within the scheduled districts of Kolhan. As a matter of fact, Regulation XIII of 1833 was not meant for the Kolhan areas of Singhbhum but it was meant to be applicable to the district of Ramgarh and the Jungle Mahal comprised in the tracts mentioned in Section III. Regulation XIII of 1833, on the face of it, could not apply to the Kolhan areas because whatever is included within the Kolhan areas as such did not come under the British rule before 1837 and hence it could not have been the intention of the framers of the Regulation of 1833 to make it applicable to the Kolhan areas. Section 7 of Act XIV of 1874, known as the Scheduled Districts Act, also would not operate to give validity to Wilkinson's Rules. Assuming that the Scheduled Districts Act, 1874, did apply to Wilkinson's Rules, that Act having been repealed by the Constitution of India, Wilkinson's Rules cannot be held to be valid after the repeal of 1874 Act. Moreover, even assuming that Wilkinson's Rules were covered by Section V of Regulation XIII of 1833 as having been made by the Governor-General by an order in Council, that too would cease to be operative after the passing of Act I of 1903 which put an end to the life of these Rules.

3. It has further been urged that Wilkinson's Rules, no doubt, have been challenged from time to time on several occasions before, but they have been found intra vires on the assumption that there was nothing to show that these rules were not made by the Governor-General in Council, but the onus to prove this would lie upon the party who would contend that these rules were passed by the Governor-General by an order in Council by producing such an order. This is more so because Wilkinson's Rules themselves do not show that the rules were framed by an order of the Governor-General in Council. In the circumstances, it must be held that these rules were made by Captain T. Wilkinson on his own initiative. Even on the assumption that Wilkinson's Rules have been acted upon since 1837 onwards and several titles have resulted from the observance of these roles, the only effect would be that the past decisions may not be disturbed on the doctrine of factum valet, but so far as the prospective litigations are concerned, Wilkinson's Rules must be struck down as invalid as having no force of law and they cannot regulate the procedure of administration of justice in the Kolhan areas.

4. Reference is made further to Bihar Act III of 1967, known as the Kolhan Civil Justice (Regulation and Validating) Act which purported to validate all actions taken under Wilkinson's Rules. It has also provided that in all suits and proceedings within the local limits of Kolhan, with the exception of the areas co