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Judgment
Raghava Rao, J.—This second appeal raises out of a suit by the Sri Vedaraniaswaraswami Devastanam at Vedaraniam for a declaration
against the Province of Madras represented by the Collector of Tanjore as defendant 1 that a portion of the Sannadhi street in the village of
Vedaraniam had been wrongly assigned by the first defendant to the second and for recovery of possession of the street property from defendant
2 after removing the structures built upon it by him pursuant to the assignment. The plaintiff claimed to be the grantee of the entire village in inam
from a Tanjore King of old under a grant which has not been produced but which, as appears from the inam title deed, was confirmed by the
British Government in 1863. The plaintiff accordingly urged that the reversionary title to the street which was one dedicated to the public including,
the villagers was all along vested in it.
Defendant 2 based his title on an assignment made to him by defendant 1 after its conversion into ryotwari land as the result of an order of the
District Collector of Tanjore u/s 20A, Madras Estates Land Act dated 31st July 1944 which held that the street was one which had existed from
before the permanent settlement, that the reversionary right to it was really that of the Government and that the property was no longer required for
the purpose for which it has been originally intended and all along used. Both the defendants pleaded that the order of the District Collector was
correct and that in any case, there having been no appeal preferred by the plaintiff against the order in the manner provided for in column 6 of Part
B of the schedule to the Act, the plaintiff was precluded from questioning its correctness by force of Sub-Sections. (2) and (3) of Section 189 of
the Act, There was also a question of res judicata raised by the defendants in their pleadings on the basis of the decision of the District Court of
Negapatam in A. S. No. 85 of 1940 confirmed by the High Court in C. R. P. No. 1606 of 1942 which related to another plot in the suit village
and in respect of which an order u/s 20A of the Act similar to the one in the present case was passed by the District Collector and upheld in
appeal by the District Judge. The learned District Munsif dismissed the suit, finding in favour of the defendants on all the pleas taken by them in
answer to the suit. The learned Subordinate Judge, in appeal, reversed the ""District Munsif''s decision on all the points. Defendant 1 accordingly
appeals against the judgment and decree of the learned Subordinate Judge.
The questions which arose for determination in the Courts below and which the learned Government Pleader has argued here are of some
importance, although not of any great difficulty. After reserving decision and considering all the questions carefully I have come to the clear
conclusion that the appeal must fail.
The first contention of the learned Government Pleader is that the reversionary right in respect of the street poromboke in the said inam village
belonged to the Government. Whatever the agree ability of the position taken up by him, on the authority of the decisions like Venkatarama Sivan
and Another Vs. The Secretary of State for India in Council, and Venkatarama Sivan and Another Vs. The Secretary of State for India in Council,
, might have been prior to the latest ruling of the Privy Council in AIR 1945 165 (Privy Council) the position is, in my opinion, altogether incapable
of any serious argument in view of that decision, in which, construing an inam title deed like Ex.P-1 in the present case containing the words
besides poromboke"", their Lordships held that the decision in Venkatarama Sivan and Another Vs. The Secretary of State for India in Council,
must be regarded as overruled by the Urlam case: Balasurya Prasada Bow v. Secretary of State, 40 Mad. 886: AIR 1917 P. C. 42, The Privy
Council case like the case in Narayanaswami Naidu v. Secretary of State, 24 M. L. J. 36 : 14 I. C. 261 was concerned, it is true, not with a street
poromboke but with a river bed or channel poromboke used for the purpose of irrigation; but the passage at pp. 240 and 241 of the report of their
Lordships'' judgment which I am quoting supplies, in my opinion, authority which concludes the present case as well, adversely to the appellant.
Since the decision of this Board in what is usually called the Urlam case, Bala Surya Prasada Row v. Secy. of State, 40 Mad. 886 : A. I. R. 1917
P. C. 42 there can no longer be any question but that a grant of the proprietary interest includes the grantor''s rights in tank, river, and channel
poromboke, and it is unnecessary to consider what effect, if any, such a grant has on what is called communal poromboke, such as burning
ground, thrashing floors and the like. In their Lordships'' opinion the judgment of the Madras High Court in Narayanaswmi Naidu v. Secy. of State,
24 M. L. J. 36 : 14 I. C. 261 where a contrary opinion was expressed, must be regarded as overruled to that extent by the Urlam case: Bala
Surya Prasad Row v. Secy. of State, 40 Mad. 886 : AIR 1917 P. C. 42. In the present case the High Court said ''There is not the slightest
indication that any rights were reserved by the Government except the right to collect Rs. 1182 every year. Further, the expression ''besides
poromboke'' was put in to indicate that not merely the lands that were then cultivated as dry, wet or garden were granted but also all the other
rights which the grantor had, as is pointed out by the Judicial Committee in AIR 1942 21 (Privy Council) . With this their Lordships agree, as they
do with the rest of the High Court''s judgment.
In the present case, the Court is not concerned with any kind of communal poromboke as to which opinion was reserved by their Lordships hut
with a street poromboke which, as Mr. Chandrasekhara Aiyar J. in his unreported judgment in C. R. P. No. 1506 of 1942 marked as Ex. D-2
seems to have been inclined to think and which I too am inclined to think is not communal land. The learned Judge''s observation in the civil
revision petition which has been extracted in para. 18 of the lower appellate Court''s judgment and to which reference will be made by me in
another context hereafter in this judgment runs as follows:
The second point argued before me is that a road cannot be regarded as property set apart for any communal purpose as specified in Sub-clauses
(a) and (b) of Clause 16 of Section 3 Ordinarily speaking, a road is poromboke and not communal land as is the case with tank and channel beds
and bunds, threshing floors, cattle stands and village sites. The villagers would no doubt use the road but other people who are not residents of the
village might use the road as well. It is not communal property in the sense in which the other properties in Sub-clauses (a) and (b) are. There is
something to be said for this view, but here again the petitioner raised no such objection to the jurisdiction of the Collector to decide the question.
It seems to me that the learned Judge''s reference in this observation to tank and channel beds and bunds communal poromboke, is not in accord
either with the remarks of the Privy Council in the AIR 1945 165 (Privy Council) , in which their Lordships advert to a possible distinction
between tank, river and channel poromboke on the one hand and communal poromboke such as burning grounds, threshing floors and the like on
the other, or with the tenor of Section 3, Sub-section (16), Madras Estates Land Act which from the definition of ""ryoti land"" separately excludes
beds and bunds of tanks and of supply, drainage surplus or irrigation channels, in clause (a) and threshing floor, cattle-stands, village-sites and
other lands situated in any estate which are set apart for the common use of the villagers, in clause (b). But that point apart, I have no hesitation in
agreeing with the view prima facie accepted by the learned Judge as sound that a road poromboke is not communal property. And if as to road
poromboke or what is sometimes called in the Telugu part of the Presidency as Puntha poromboke, the law is clear in zamindari areas as laid
down by Varadachariar J. in (Sri Rajah Row) Venkata Kumara Mahipathi Surya Rao Bahadur Garu Vs. Chairman, Municipal Council, , after a
review of all prior decisions and a careful examination of principle with which I respectfully agree that the right of reversion is in the landholder and
not in the Government, there is no reason on principle why the same should not be the case in whole inam village areas; nor can there be any doubt
about the matter in view of the remarks of the Privy Council in the AIR 1945 165 (Privy Council) quoted above, which although made in
connection with a case of river bed or channel poromboke, as already observed by me, is equally conclusive of a case of street poromboke like
the present. The first contention of the learned Government Pleader must accordingly be repelled.
The learned Government Pleader''s second contention that the suit is barred by Section 189, Madras Estates Land Act might, at first sight, seem
sound; but must, in my opinion, go the same way as the first. The principles in the light of which the point falls to be decided are to be found stated
by the Privy Council in a passage in the decision in AIR 1940 105 (Privy Council) which runs in these terms:
It is settled law that the exclusion of the jurisdiction of the civil Courts is not to be readily inferred, but that such exclusion must either be explicitly
expressed or clearly implied. It is also well settled that even if jurisdiction is so excluded, the civil Courts have jurisdiction to examine into cases
where the provisions of the Act have not been complied with, or the statutory tribunal has not acted in conformity with the fundamental principles
of judicial procedure.
Applying these principles it seems to me as clear as clear could be, that if, as held by me already, the property is not one in respect of which
reversionary rights can vest in the Government, the District Collector had no jurisdiction to make the order of conversion into ryotwari land which
he did make u/s 20A (b) (ii), Madras Estates Land Act. The case would then be one in which ""the provisions of the Act were not complied with,
in the language of Lord Thankerton in the Privy Council decision just referred to and the plaintiff would not stand confronted with any effective bar
in his way u/s 189 of the Act.
The third and last contention on behalf of the Government has in my judgment even less of merits than the other two. In the first place the
decision of the District Judge in A. S. No. 35 of 1940 relied upon as res judicata related to a different plot of land in the suit village. 1950 M/13 &
14 Further, the view in revision expressed by Chandrasekhara Aiyar J. in Ex. D-2 so far as it goes sounds rather in favour of the plaintiff, although
his Lordship refused to interfere in revision at that juncture. Moreover, as rightly held by the lower appellate Court in the present case on the
authority of the decisions in Varagunarama Pandia Chinnathambiar Vs. Rengasamy Naidu and Others, , Adivikolanu Chakrapani Rao and Others
Vs. Sri Rajah Venkatadri Appa Rao Bahadur Zamindar, , (Srimathu) Muthu Vijiaraghunatha Duraisingam Vs. Venkatachalam Chettiar and
Others, and Ramaswamy Goundar and Another Vs. Ramaswami Goundar and Others, , the doctrine of res judicata can have no application to
decisions of revenue authorities on questions of title, like orders u/s 20A, Madras Estates Land Act. All the points taken for the appellant failing,
the second appeal fails and is dismissed with costs of respondent 1. (Leave to appeal is refused).