1954 Supreme(Raj) 11

Rajasthan High Court, Jaipur Bench
Wanchoo C.J. & Sharma J.
Th. Shiv Kalyan Singh - Appellant
Versus
Bhur Singh - Respondents
Writ No. 152 of 1952 and Writ No. 123 of 1953
Decided On : January 13, 1954

Headnote:(a) General Clauses Act (Jaipur) 1944, sec. 5(1) & (3)—Came into force—Mere publication not enough—Hit Karini Committee Rules never came into force though published.(b) Jaipur Laws Act, 1923, sec. 3(b)—Scope.(c) General Clauses Act (Jaipur) 1944—Validity of law—His Highness competent to make law though same not enacted in accordance with procedure—Hit Karini Committee Rules sanctioned by H. H. as law.(d) Constitution of India, Art. 13 & 14—Discriminatory legislation—Welfare of all classes— Jaipur Hit Karini Committee Rules—Rules ill drafted and ambiguous.

       Sec. 3 (b) does not affect the question as to when a particular law conies into force. It only provides that enactments and regulations, that may be passed after the 1st of November, 1924, and published in the official gazette, shall be the law to be administered by the courts of Jaipur State. But it is well-known that though many an enactment is published in the gazette on a particular day it does not come into force on that day. The mere fact, therefore, that an enactment is published in the gazette is not enough to hold that it came into force on that day also. Jaipur Hit Karini Committee Rules do not contain any date on which they are to come into force; nor are these Rules an Act of the Legislature to which the assent of His Highness has been given. They can only be covered by the third class of laws, which means any other Act. The clause had to remain because the sovereign authority of His Highness the Maharaja to legislate was still there. In such cases, the law came into force when it was published in the Gazette as an Act. Mere publication in the Gazette was not enough. The publication had to be as an Act and the word Act is defined in the Jaipur General Clauses Act as an Act made by or with the assent of His Highness the Maharaja. These Rules, even though may be law were never published as an Act in the Jaipur Gazette. Publication as an Act, means that it should be published in the Gazette in such manner that every body may know that the Act published is a law which has been made by or with the assent of His Highness the Maharaja. Unless the publication is in this form, no law of the third kind even though published in the Gazette, can come into operation in the former Jaipur State after the Jaipur General Clauses Act came into force on the 8th of February, 1944. There being no indication that these Rules had received the assent of His Highness on a particular date, and were being published as an Act, they never came into operation as law even in the time of the former Jaipur State, even though there rules might have been acted upon. (Paras 6, 8, 9)

       In some parts of Rajasthan maintenance allowances of dependants of jagirdars or State grantees are fixed by the courts, whether civil or revenue, while in others there are State rules which give this power to certain executive authorities.

       The Jaipur Hit Karini Committee Rules appear to be ill drafted and ambiguous. In some respects the Hit Karini Committees seem to take advantage of these ill drafted rules to pass orders which are clearly beyond their competence. It is true that in certain respects these Rules provide a cheaper remedy to the dependants, as for example rule 18 which says that no court-fee shall be leviable on these applications. At the same time, there does not seem to be sufficient provision for proper representation of the case before authorities concerned in these rules. Rule 6 excludes appearance of lawyers, though it allows parties to produce evidence themselves or through their representatives. There is however, no provision for hearing by the Revenue Minister who is the final authority, as the Committee is only a recommending body. Taking all these matters into consideration, these Rules are not such as providing a better procedure as compared to the fixation of maintenance allowance by courts. Consequently, the application of these Rules only to the formes State of Jaipur, having regard to the welfare of all classes within the particular territory cannot be upheld. (Paras 14 & 15)