AIR 1957 SUPREME COURT 34 ::1956 SCC 431 ::1956 SCJ 721 ::1959 Bom LR 93 ::1956 SCR 675

Supreme Court Of India

20th September 1956

Hon'ble Judge(s): B. Jagannadhadas, T. L. Venkatarama Ayyar, B. P. Sinha, S. K. Das , JJJ

Bombay Hereditary Offices Act (3 of 1874) , S.4, S.22— Watan property resumed by Government after dispensing with service and after levying full assessment -Property loses its character as Watan property. It cannot be said that the Government has no power to destroy the Watan character of a Watan land. An authority which has the power to create an office and to provide for its remuneration in cash or in kind has also the power to revoke the grant, and upon such revocation, if any, land has been assigned for remunerating the office so abolished, it must revert to the source from which it came; that is to say, ryotwari land subject to the land revenue assessment. Where property originally Watan has been resumed by the Government after dispensing, with service and after levying full assessment, the property loses its character as Watan property and becomes subject to the ordinary law of land tenures in that State. The very description of the land as Japti Sanadi Inam land would mean that that which was once the subject-matter of an inam grant by virtue of a sanad has been resumed or conflicted by Government and the land left in possession of the holder as ryotwari holding:(Para 5 6) .....