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TMI Blog1889 (11) TMI 2X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... sing such land were ultra vires? 3. The distinction is not material in the present case, but it appears to their Lordships that if the Civil Court has jurisdiction at all, that jurisdiction may be invoked as a matter of right, and that it is not a case for the exercise of the Court's discretion. If the party appealing to the civil tribunal can establish that the Court has jurisdiction, and that the Board have acted ultra vires, he is, in their Lordships' opinion, entitled as of right to a decree. 4. Both the questions involved in this case, depend upon the construction to be put upon the Act of 1847. The 1st section of that Act enacts "that such parts of the Regulations of the Bengal Code as establish tribunals, and prescribe rules of procedure for investigations regarding liability to assessment of lands gained from the sea, or from rivers by alluvion or dereliction, or regarding the right of the Government to the ownership thereof, shall, from the date of the passing of this Act, cease to have effect within the provinces of Bengal, Behar, and Orissa, and that all such investigations pending before the Collectors and Deputy Collectors in the said provinces at the sa ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... After the collector has notified his decision to the party concerned, the Board of Revenue are, upon a day to be fixed by public notice, and after hearing anything which the party may have to urge on his own behalf, to proceed to pass judgment in the case. If the Board of Revenue decide against the assessment, their decision is to be final, except on proof of fraud or collusion, but if the board declare the lands liable to assessment, the party may institute a suit in the Civil Court to try the justness of the demand. It may be further noticed that, by Clause 7 of the Regulation, in cases where land is supposed to be liable to assessment under the provisions of Clause 3, the collector is to institute a full and particular inquiry into the circumstances and condition of the land in question at the period of the decennial settlement, and in cases of alluvion land into the period of its formation. The 31st clause appears to their Lordships to be also very important. After providing that nothing in the Regulation should be considered to affect the rights of proprietors of estates for which a permanent settlement had been concluded, to the full benefit of waste lands included within th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... question are situate, the provisions relating to these Special Commissioners may be disregarded. The regulation, however, modified in some respects the provisions of Regulation II. of 1819. It enacted that decisions of the Boards of Revenue declaring the liability to assessment of lands should be carried into immediate execution, notwithstanding that the parties against whom the decisions had passed had sued to contest the decision in one of the established courts of justice. It further provided that all suits which might be instituted in the established courts of justice under the provisions of Regulation II. of 1819 to contest decisions of the Board of Revenue should be heard and determined in the same manner as regular appeals, and no further pleadings should be required or received than the objections of the Appellant to the decision of the Board, and the reply to these objections on the part of the Revenue authorities, and that it should not be competent to the Courts to take further evidence, oral or documentary, unless it should appear that such evidence was tendered by the party adducing it to the collector or the board, and was then rejected on insufficient grounds, or tha ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Bengal in any district in which a survey has been completed and approved by the Government to direct decennially a new survey of lands on the banks of rivers and on the shores of the sea, in order to ascertain the changes that may have taken place since the last previous survey, and to cause new maps to be made according to such new survey. Section 6 provides that "whenever, on inspection of any such new map, it shall appear to the local revenue authorities that land has been added to any estate paying revenue directly to Government, they shall without delay duly assess the same according to the rules in force for assessing alluvial increments." 12. Their Lordships cannot think that it was intended by such a provision as this to deal with the case of lands in permanent settlement which had become derelict of the sea or a river. They cannot be said to have been "added" to the estate to which they already belonged. Considering the solemn assurance given by the Government to the owners of permanently settled estates that they should not be liable to further assessment in respect thereof, their Lordships find it impossible to hold that it was ever intended by this ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... case of reformed land being part of a settled estate in respect of which the full assessment has continued to be paid, it appears to follow that neither the local revenue authorities nor the Board of Revenue can effectually render such land liable to assessment. It has been shown that under the previous legislation the owner of such lands was expressly given an appeal to the Civil Court as a protection against any attempt of the revenue authorities to subject him to additional assessment. The provisions contained in Clause 31 of the Regulation of 1819 are in no way repealed or affected by the Act of 1847. The action of the revenue authorities was, therefore, in their Lordships' opinion, wholly illegal and invalid. Their Lordships cannot hold that the Board of Revenue can, by purporting to exercise a jurisdiction which they did not possess, make their order upon such, a matter final, and exempt themselves from the control of the Civil Court. It is argued that where the acts done were within the powers conferred by the Act of 1847 the protection afforded by Section 9 would be unnecessary, and that it must be applicable to acts done in assumed exercise of the powers conferred but ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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