Hereditary cash allowance linked to forest rights can be extinguished as an alienation under agrarian reform law.

A hereditary annual cash allowance traced to ancestral forest produce rights was held to fall within the wide statutory meaning of alienation under the Gujarat Surviving Alienations Abolition Act, 1963. The Court sustained extinguishment of the allowance under Article 31-A because the arrangement remained inseparably connected with rights in forest land and pasture land and formed part of agrarian reform, even though it was not protected by Article 31-B. The Court rejected the argument that the cash payment was disconnected from land and held that compensation remained payable under the Act.

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Issues: Whether the hereditary right to receive an annual cash payment in lieu of forest produce rights was an alienation within Section 2(3)(d) of the Gujarat Surviving Alienations Abolition Act, 1963, and whether its extinguishment by the Act was protected by Article 31-A of the Constitution of India.

Analysis: The right to receive money had its origin in ancestral rights over forest produce from land forming part of a forest area, and the 1914 arrangement converted those rights into an annual hereditary cash payment. The Court held that the statutory definition of alienation was wide enough to include such a cash allowance. Although the provision was excluded from Article 31-B protection by the Ninth Schedule entry, the extinguishment of the right was still sustained under Article 31-A because the transaction was connected with rights in an estate, including forest land and land for pasture, and the legislation operated as part of agrarian reform. The Court rejected the view that the cash payment was unconnected with land and concluded that compensation remained payable under the Act.

Conclusion: The hereditary cash payment was validly extinguished under the Act, the challenge to Section 2(3)(d) failed, and the respondents were not entitled to continue receiving the amount as a vested hereditary right.

Ratio Decidendi: A statutory extinguishment of a hereditary cash allowance originating in and inseparably connected with rights in forest land can be upheld as part of agrarian reform under Article 31-A, even if the allowance is expressly included within the definition of alienation and is not protected by Article 31-B.

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