Article 131 proviso excludes State boundary disputes tied to pre-Constitution notifications and agreements from original jurisdiction.

A State boundary dispute arising out of, or connected with, pre-Constitution notifications and agreements falls within the exclusion in the proviso to Article 131 and is outside the Supreme Court's original original jurisdiction. The Court read the expressions in the proviso broadly and treated the 1920, 1923 and 1927 notifications, as well as the 1943 agreement, as instruments covered by it. A challenge that the 1927 notification was void did not alter the position because the claims and defences remained tied to those instruments. The suit was therefore not maintainable in the Supreme Court's original jurisdiction.

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Issues: Whether a suit between States concerning territorial boundaries and the effect of historical notifications and agreements was barred by the proviso to Article 131 of the Constitution of India.

Analysis: Article 131 confers exclusive original jurisdiction on the Supreme Court in inter-State disputes, but that jurisdiction is subject to the Constitution and to the proviso excluding disputes arising out of any treaty, agreement, covenant, engagement, sanad or other similar instrument executed before the commencement of the Constitution and continuing in operation thereafter. The expressions used in the proviso were read broadly. The notifications of 1920, 1923 and 1927, as well as the 1943 agreement relied upon by the parties, were held to be instruments within the meaning of the proviso. Even the challenge that the 1927 notification was void or ineffective did not take the dispute outside the proviso, because the claims and defences remained connected with those instruments. Paragraph 3 of the Constitution of Orissa Order, 1936 also indicated a separate mechanism for boundary questions, reinforcing that the controversy was not one for adjudication in the Court's original jurisdiction.

Conclusion: The dispute was excluded from the Supreme Court's original jurisdiction under the proviso to Article 131 and the suit was not maintainable.

Ratio Decidendi: A boundary dispute between States that arises out of, or is connected with, pre-Constitution instruments such as notifications or agreements falls within the exclusionary proviso to Article 131 and cannot be entertained in the Supreme Court's original jurisdiction.

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