Service-tenure inams and Article 26 protection rejected for ordinary land assessment on religious institution lands.

An inam granted to a religious institution for worship or maintenance is not, by that fact alone, land held on service tenure within the proviso to Section 3(1) of the Tamil Nadu Inams (Assessment) Act, 1956. The proviso protects only true service-tenure grants, understood in their settled sense as grants attached to service or office and, where relevant, confined to assignment of land revenue. The lands were therefore liable to full assessment. Imposition of that general land assessment did not infringe Article 26, because it was an ordinary fiscal burden applied uniformly to landowners and not a special restriction on religious administration or property rights.

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Issues: (i) Whether lands granted to a religious institution were protected by the proviso to Section 3(1) of the Tamil Nadu Inams (Assessment) Act, 1956 as lands held on service tenure; (ii) Whether levy of full assessment on such lands infringed Article 26 of the Constitution of India.

Issue (i): Whether lands granted to a religious institution were protected by the proviso to Section 3(1) of the Tamil Nadu Inams (Assessment) Act, 1956 as lands held on service tenure.

Analysis: The expression "service tenure" was construed in its settled sense and not as a broad category covering every grant made for the support of a religious or charitable institution. Grants to an institution for worship or maintenance were distinguished from grants burdened with service or attached to an office. The statutory proviso was intended to protect only inams truly granted on service tenure and proved to consist of an assignment of land revenue only. Section 44B of Madras Act 2 of 1927 was not treated as controlling the meaning of the expression in the assessment statute.

Conclusion: The proviso to Section 3(1) did not apply, and the lands were liable to full assessment.

Issue (ii): Whether levy of full assessment on such lands infringed Article 26 of the Constitution of India.

Analysis: Imposition of land assessment was treated as a general fiscal burden shared by all landowners and not as a special restraint on the denomination's right to own, acquire, or administer property. The constitutional protection under Article 26 did not extend to exemption from ordinary tax burdens imposed uniformly by law.

Conclusion: The levy did not violate Article 26.

Final Conclusion: The assessment order was upheld and the writ petition challenging it failed.

Ratio Decidendi: An inam granted to a religious institution for its support or worship is not, merely for that reason, an inam granted on service tenure; ordinary land assessment imposed uniformly by law does not infringe Article 26.

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