Statutory vesting free from encumbrances defeated pre-existing grants claimed through the proprietor under the abolition scheme.

Statutory vesting under the Madhya Pradesh Abolition of Proprietary Rights Act transferred proprietary rights in the estate to the State free from encumbrances and extinguished interests claimed through the outgoing proprietor. Section 6(1) did not preserve pre-existing grants against the State; it only rendered certain later transfers void within the vesting scheme. As the respondents' interests were not brought within any saving clause, the grants could not be enforced after vesting and were displaced by the statute.

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Issues: Whether grants made by outgoing proprietors in favour of the respondents survived the vesting of the estates in the State under the Madhya Pradesh Abolition of Proprietary Rights (Estates, Mahals, Alienated Lands) Act, 1950, and whether section 6(1) saved those grants from extinction under section 4(1)(a).

Analysis: On a combined reading of section 3 and section 4(1)(a), the notification under section 3 brought all proprietary rights in the estate into the State free from encumbrances, and section 4(1)(a) expressly extinguished all rights, title and interest vesting in the proprietor or persons claiming through him, including interests in land, forest, trees and similar property. Section 6(1) merely rendered certain post-16 March 1950 transfers void as against the vesting scheme, but it did not preserve such transfers against the State or prevent the statutory vesting from operating. The respondents also failed to bring their claimed interests within any saving clause of section 5.

Conclusion: The grants could not be enforced against the State after vesting, and section 6(1) did not protect the respondents' interests from extinction under the Act.

Final Conclusion: The statutory scheme displaced the respondents' claims, and the State's challenge succeeded.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a statute vests proprietary rights in the State free from encumbrances and expressly extinguishes interests claimed through the proprietor, a pre-existing grant remains unenforceable against the State unless it is preserved by an express saving provision.

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