Land revenue assessment limits depend on clear statutory or deed-based exemption; acquisition and absolute Crown sale did not create revenue-free tenure.

A pre-existing limit on land revenue must be clearly established: the Foras Act was read as confining assessment to the rent then payable, but land acquisition did not extinguish the Government's separate prerogative to assess land to revenue. The Crown sale deed also did not create revenue-free tenure, because it expressly subjected the lands to cesses, taxes, rates, assessments, dues and duties. The earlier Foras tenure did not revive after acquisition and absolute sale, and no implied statutory exemption arose after repeal of the Foras Act. On that footing, the Government's assessment notices were valid.

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Issues: (i) Whether the Foras Act, 1851 limited the Government's right to levy assessment on the lands to the assessment then payable; (ii) whether the land acquisition proceedings under the Land Acquisition Act No. VI of 1857 extinguished the Government's right to assess the lands to revenue; (iii) whether the Crown grant/sale deed conferred a right to hold the lands revenue-free; and (iv) whether the original Foras tenure revived in the hands of the purchasers so as to continue the old assessment limit.

Issue (i): Whether the Foras Act, 1851 limited the Government's right to levy assessment on the lands to the assessment then payable.

Analysis: The Act extinguished the Company's reversionary rights but expressly saved the rents then payable and provided that they would continue to be payable. Though the drafting was inartistic, those words indicated that the assessment recoverable by Government was confined to the amount then payable and did not authorise enhancement beyond that figure.

Conclusion: The Foras Act imposed a specific limitation on assessment, and the lands were subject to assessment only up to the then existing rate.

Issue (ii): Whether the land acquisition proceedings under the Land Acquisition Act No. VI of 1857 extinguished the Government's right to levy assessment on the lands.

Analysis: The acquisition statute vested the lands in Government free from other estates, rights, titles and interests, but the Government's prerogative right to assess land was not an interest acquired from the claimants. The acquisition extinguished the occupants' interests, not the Government's taxing right, which was outside the subject-matter of acquisition and need not be valued or compensated.

Conclusion: The land acquisition proceedings did not extinguish the Government's right to levy assessment.

Issue (iii): Whether the Crown grant/sale deed conferred a right to hold the lands revenue-free.

Analysis: The Crown Grants Act, 1895 did not support an implied exemption from revenue merely because the transfer was absolute. The deed itself subjected the lands to all cesses, taxes, rates, assessments, dues and duties then or thereafter payable, which negatived any claim to revenue-free holding.

Conclusion: The sale deed did not confer any right to hold the lands free of assessment.

Issue (iv): Whether the original Foras tenure revived in the hands of the purchasers so as to continue the old assessment limit.

Analysis: Once the lands were acquired by Government, the entire prior estate and its incidents stood extinguished. The subsequent absolute sale by Government conveyed freehold title, not the old Foras tenure. The repeal of the Foras Act also meant that no surviving statutory right could be revived by implication.

Conclusion: The Foras tenure did not revive, and the old assessment limit did not continue.

Final Conclusion: The Government's right to assess the lands under the Bombay City Land Revenue Act was not curtailed by the Foras Act, the acquisition proceedings, or the sale deed, and the assessment notices were valid.

Ratio Decidendi: A pre-existing limitation on land revenue must be clearly established; acquisition of land by Government extinguishes the occupants' interests but not the Crown's prerogative right to assess, and an absolute Crown sale will not imply revenue-free tenure where the deed expressly subjects the land to taxes and assessments.

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