Government Grants Act applies to Rajasthan and overrides registration rules for government land transfers.

The Government Grants Act, 1895 was treated as extending to Rajasthan through the Rajasthan Adaptation of Central Laws Ordinance, 1950, with Article 372 preserving that extension after the Constitution came into force. The later adaptation under Article 372A was read as adapting the Act as it then stood, not repealing its earlier application to Rajasthan. Section 2 was construed broadly to cover every transfer of land or any interest in land made by or on behalf of the Government, so the character of the transaction as commercial or non-commercial did not remove it from the Act. On that basis, the Act displaced the general registration regime under the Transfer of Property Act, 1882.

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Issues: (i) Whether the Government Grants Act, 1895 continued to apply in Rajasthan after the constitutional and adaptation changes; (ii) whether Section 2 of the Government Grants Act, 1895 applied to the impugned sale-deed so as to exclude the Transfer of Property Act and the requirement of registration.

Issue (i): Whether the Government Grants Act, 1895 continued to apply in Rajasthan after the constitutional and adaptation changes.

Analysis: The Act had been extended to Rajasthan under the Rajasthan Adaptation of Central Laws Ordinance, 1950, and that extension continued after the Constitution came into force under Article 372 of the Constitution of India. The subsequent adaptation under Article 372A of the Constitution of India only adapted the Act as it then stood and did not disclose any intention to repeal the earlier extension to Rajasthan. The Court also noted that the subject-matter fell within legislative competence under Item No. 6, List III, Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India.

Conclusion: The Government Grants Act, 1895 was held applicable to Rajasthan.

Issue (ii): Whether Section 2 of the Government Grants Act, 1895 applied to the impugned sale-deed so as to exclude the Transfer of Property Act and the requirement of registration.

Analysis: Section 2 was held to apply not merely to grants in the narrow sense but to every transfer of land or of any interest therein made by or on behalf of the Crown/Government. The Court rejected the distinction sought to be drawn between commercial and non-commercial transactions and held that the nature of the transaction did not take it outside the statutory protection. The cited authorities were found inapplicable on their facts.

Conclusion: Section 2 applied to the sale-deed, and the document was not inadmissible for want of registration on that ground.

Final Conclusion: The revisional challenge failed, and the order of the court below was upheld.

Ratio Decidendi: Where the Government Grants Act, 1895 has been validly extended to a territory, Section 2 governs transfers of land or interests in land made by or on behalf of the Government notwithstanding the general registration regime under the Transfer of Property Act, 1882.

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