LECTURE 304 8 THE PERMANENT SETTLEMENT. and lawful successors will be allowed to hold their estates at such assessment for ever." Those whose lands are held khas in consequence of their refusing to pay the assessment required of them will be restored to the management of their lands upon their agreeing to the assessment provided for by the Regulations, which will remain fixed for ever. Those whose lands have been let in farm will be restored on the same terms on the expiration of the period for which the lands have been farmed. In case of the proprietary right in lands that are or may become the property of Government being transferred to individuals, such individuals, their heirs, and lawful successors shall hold for ever at the assessment at which the land may be transferred. The Regulation then refers to the former system of increasing the revenue from time to time, and states that with a view to such increase, frequent investigations as to the produce were made, and the proprietors were excluded and the lands let in farm, or officers of the Government were appointed to collect the assessment from the ryots. These usages and measures being considered detrimental to the prosperity of the country, the assessment has been made fixed and irrevocable, and will not be liable to alteration by future administrations. The Governor-General in Council consequently exhorts the proprietors of land to exert themselves in the cultivation of their lands, "under the certainty that they will enjoy exclusively the fruits of their own good management and industry." They ought now, he urges, more than ever, punctually to pay the revenue, and to conduct themselves with good faith and moderation towards their ryots and dependent talookdars. In future no claims or applications for suspensions or remissions on account of drought, inundation, or other calamity of season will be attended to; but in case of failure to pay the assessment, a sale of the whole or a sufficient portion of the defaulter's lands "will positively and invariably take place." The proclamation, in order to prevent misconstruction, then declares that-(1) it being the duty of the ruling power to protect all classes of people, particularly the helpless, the Governor-General in Council reserves the right to make such Regulations as may be necessary for the protection and welfare of the dependent talookdars, ryots, and other cultivators of the soil: (2) since the proprietors of land were compensated for the loss of revenue in consequence of the abolition of the sayer, the right to re-establish it is reserved to Government, without giving the landholders a right to claim any remission, or any share in the proceeds: (3) the right to assess lands alienated and paying no public revenue which have been or may be proved to be held under illegal or invalid titles, and the amount of such assessment is to belong to Government alone: (4) the jumma now declared fixed is entirely unconnected with, and exclusive of, any allowances made in the adjustment of their jumma; as well as of the produce of any lands which they may have been permitted to appropriate for keeping up the police establishments. The Governor-General in Council reserves the right to resume such allowances or produce, which will, however, when resumed, be specially appropriated to the purpose of keeping up the police, and will not be collected as part of the jumma, but separately: (5) the lands of proprietors disqualified under the Regulations of the 15th July 1791 are not to be liable to sale for arrears under the Regulations for the Decennial LECTURE LECTURE VIII. Settlement: provided such arrears accrue during the time they are dispossessed under the Regulations of the 15th July 1791. When any such landholders are permitted to retain or resume the management, their lands will be answerable for the revenue from the time they get the management.' The proclamation notifies, in order to remove any doubt, that zemindars, independent talookdars, and other actual proprietors of land are privileged to transfer their proprietary rights by sale, gift, or otherwise, as they think fit, according to law, without the sanction of the Government. The principles upon which the jumma is to be assessed or apportioned in case of a transfer in lots or of joint property being divided are laid down. All private transfers and divisions must be notified to the Collector in order that the jumma may be apportioned, and the shares with their jumma registered, and separate engagements executed by the proprietors, who will thenceforth be considered "as actual proprietors of land." If such notification is not made, the whole estate will be held liable as if no transfer or division had taken place. If the lands are disposed of as a dependent talook, the dependent talook dar's jumma will not be registered in the Government records; nor will the rights or claims of Government against such lands, in common with the remainder of the estate, for the whole revenue be affected by such transfer. The principle for apportioning or assessing the jumma upon divided estates is that, on sale of the whole estate in lots for arrears, the assessment on the lot will be to its produce as the whole revenue is to the whole produce, the latter being ascertained as prescribed. This is substantially the rule laid down in the other cases of a sale of a portion for arrears in one lot, of a private transfer in portions, and of a division of lands held jointly. LECTURE on lands held khas divided. With regard to lands held khas or let in farm, when Assessment sold publicly for arrears, or sold privately, or divided, it farmed or is provided—(1) that lands held khas on account of the when sold or proprietors not agreeing to the assessment proposed, and which are sold publicly in pursuance of a decree, shall be disposed of at such assessment as the Governor-General in Council may think equitable. If the lands at the time of sale are held in farm and are put up in lots, the purchaser shall hold under the conditions that he shall receive during the remainder of the farming lease whatever the proprietor would have been entitled to, and shall engage to pay such assessment at the end of the lease as the Government may think equitable. Such sum to be so received by the purchaser, and the jumma to be paid by him after the expiration of the lease, shall be specified at the time of sale, and the jumma so fixed shall be perpetual: (2) if the lands are sold privately, the purchaser shall be entitled to receive from Government if the lands were held khas, or from the farmer if let in farm, the malikana to which the proprietor was entitled, and the purchaser will stand in the same position as under section 5: (3) in the case of a division of joint lands, held khas or let in farm, the proprietors will stand in the same position as under section 5.o This Regulation was supplemented by the re-enactment, Further in Regulation VIII of 1793, of the Regulations for the provisions. 'Ss. 10 & 11 are repealed by Act IV of 1846, s. 1. 2 S. 11. LECTURE Decennial Settlement as part of the permanent law. This Regulation also adapted the new system to the transfer of jurisdiction in revenue matters to the Civil Courts, which was effected by Regulations II and III of 1793. In re-enacting these Regulations, the term "revenue" is substituted for "rent;" and from this time the terms are generally used with different meanings; "revenue" being used to designate the sums paid by the zemindars, &c., to Government, and "rent" the sums paid by the ryots, &c., to the zemindars. The change in the term serves to mark the more absolute right conferred upon the zemindars by the permanency of the settlement, which left them less in the position of tenants paying a rent which could be raised by the landlord, and more in the position of proprietors paying revenue for their property. The following amendments in the Regulations deserve notice :-(1) the penalties against exaction and oppression by the zemindar with respect to the talookdars in Article 5 of the Regulation of 1791 are not re-enacted. The penalty for exaction or oppression was the separation of the talook from the zemindary; this was allowed to drop.' (2) With respect to talookdars, it was further enacted in the new Regulations that those whose talooks were held under writings or sunnuds from the zemindars or other actual proprietors, which did not expressly transfer the property in the soil, but only entitled the talookdar to possession so long as he paid the rent and performed the conditions therein, were considered as leaseholders only, not actual proprietors of the soil, and consequently not entitled to be rendered independent of the zemindar or other actual proprietor of land, from whom 1 S. 6. |