Valid under Article 31-A, Entries Nos. 36 and 45 of List II, Schedule VII of Constitution.

This petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution raises a question as to the validity of the Madras Inams Assessment Act 1956 (XL of 1956) (hereinafter referred to as the Act) with a view to quash a Notification made thereunder.

The petitioner, Sri Vedaranyeswaraswami Devasthanam is being maintained with the income from, and is the grantee, of, several inams which are spread over in about twenty-three villages in the Tanjore District. One such inam is an extent of 4.6 acres 43 cents in the Village of Pannal in Thiruthuraipoondi Taluk. This is a minor inam where both the warams in the land are owned by the petitioner subject to an annual payment of Rs. 15.75np by way of jodi or cesses to the Government. The title deed issued in favour of the Manager of the Devasthanam confirms the inam for the support of the temple, “tax tree to be held without interference so long as the conditions of the grant are duly fulfilled”. The lands covered by the inam are in the possession of tenants, the rent paid by them being Rs. 103.83np. per year. Out of this sum the petitioner claims that Rs. 17.50 has to be spent away as expenditure for collection, the net income from the inam being thus Rs. 70.58.

The Madras State Legislature passed a law, the Madras Inams Assessment Act, 1956 for the stated purpose of levying full assessment on certain inam lands in the State. It has received the assent of the President on 19th February, 1957, butits operation has been made to take effect by section 1(2) thereof as and from the 1st day of July, 1956. The Act authorises the Government to levy full assessment at the rate of the prevailing ryotwari assessment in the same village or in the nearest ryotwari village as the case may be, notwithstanding anything contained in the inam grant.

Proceeding to act under the provisions of the Act, the Assistant Collector of Nagapattinam issued a Preliminary Notification under section 3 (2) proposing to levy on the petitioner an assessment of Rs. 58.66np. Not having received any objection from the inamdar, he issued on 10th June, 1958 the Final Notification under section 3 (3) confirming the proposed levy. The result of it is, that the Devasthanam whose net annual income from the inam lands is only Rs. 70.58np. is now obliged to pay a tax of Rs. 58.66np. The petitioner states that it was not aware of the notifications referred to above at the time that they were published. The petitioner wrote to the Revenue Divisional Officer in December, 1958 for a copy of the Notification. No reply was vouchsafed to that enquiry. On coming to know after further enquiry that there was a Final Notification levying the assessment on the inam lands in question, the petitioner filed its objections before the Revenue Divisional Officer, Nagapattinam, in December, 1959. But that authority declined to consider the objections as it was filed long after the Final Notification. The petitioner thereupon filed the present petition for the issue of a writ of certiorari to quash the Notifications made by the Collector of Tanjore in respect of the inam lands covered by T.D. No. 755 in the village of Pannal in Thiruthuraipoondi Taluk, Tanjore District.

There can be little doubt, and indeed this point is conceded by the learned Advocate-General appearing for the State, that there was no effective opportunity to the petitioner to put forward its case on the question of the quantum of assessment to be levied. There is nothing on the record to show that the Collector in fixing the assessment at Rs. 58.66np. really took into account the annual demand of the landholder on the tenants and the vicissitudes which such income would ordinarily be subject to. Apart from any other consideration, we are of opinion that the Final Notification in the present case will have to be quashed, with a direction 1o the respondent to refix the assessment after swing an opportunity to the petitioner to put forward its case.

But the validity of the Noti