The Chief Justice.—

The Rajah of Vizianagaram is the petitioner in this application. The estate of Vizianagaram was notified under the Madras Estates (Abolition and Conversion into Ryotwari) Act, 1948, in September, 1949. This application relates to certain vacant house sites in the town of Vizianagaram. These houses sites certainly form part of the estate of Vizianagaram. They are admittedly situated within the ambit of the estate and it is impossible to accept the contention raised in the affidavit that the petitioner’s predecessor owned these lands before the Permanent Settlement. It is not suggested that they were parts of pre-settlement inams. It was contended that the permanent assessment was not arrived at after taking into account uncultivated arable lands and waste lands and these were given practically free to the zamindar without any additional assessment and therefore the vacant sites in question which fall under that category must be taken to be outside the scope of the permanent settlement. The contention is based on a fallacy. What passed to the zamindar under, the sanad was not confined to the lands on which the peishcush was calculated-see Prasadha Row v. Secretary

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