Village grant revenue rights extend to altered non-agricultural assessment unless the grant or rules clearly reserve it

A formal village grant must be construed on its own terms, and where it carries the villages and their revenue, a statutory altered assessment on diversion to non-agricultural use follows that revenue entitlement unless the instrument or rules clearly provide otherwise. Under the Bombay Land Revenue Code, 1879, and the 1907 Revenue Rules, the altered building or non-agricultural assessment is levied in the same manner as the former agricultural assessment and credited to the holder of the alienated village. On that construction, condition 20 did not reserve the assessment to Government.

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Issues: Whether, on the true construction of the village grant and the Bombay Land Revenue Code, the appellants were entitled to receive the building or non-agricultural assessment in place of the agricultural assessment, and whether the Government could retain such assessment.

Analysis: The deed had to be construed on its own terms and not by reference to antecedent correspondence. On its true construction, the grant was of the villages themselves, and the revenue derived from the sutidars formed part of the rights granted. The statutory scheme under Section 48(2) and Section 214 of the Bombay Land Revenue Code, 1879, together with the Revenue Rules of 1907, provided only for an altered assessment when land was diverted from agricultural to non-agricultural use. Rule 5 directed that such altered assessment be levied in the same manner as the former assessment and be credited to the holder of the alienated village. The grant therefore carried the altered or building assessment to the appellants, and condition 20 did not reserve it to Government.

Conclusion: The appellants were entitled to the non-agricultural or building assessment, and the Government was not entitled to retain it.

Final Conclusion: The decision recognized that the statutory alteration of assessment followed the existing revenue entitlement under the grant, so the appellants succeeded in substantial part and the contrary view was set aside.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a formal grant of villages carries the agricultural revenue of the villages to the grantee, a statutory altered assessment imposed on diversion of land to non-agricultural use follows the same revenue entitlement unless the governing instrument or rules clearly provide otherwise.

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