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IMPRISONMENT.

399 if, on a sale for arrears of rent, the purchaser fails to furnish security within a month after sale, and upon requisition so to do, the tenure may be attached. Such attachments are to be for the benefit and at the risk of the purchaser, who is to receive the surplus rents and to be liable in the same way as if the tenure was not attached, and the zemindar's accounts are to be primâ facie evidence to warrant attachment for an arrear of rent.

I now proceed to consider the remedies for default in payment of rent and revenue. The Permanent Settlement introduced great changes in these remedies, and, in general, gave a great impetus to litigation with respect to the rights in land. As an instance, it is stated that, within two years after the Permanent Settlement, thirty thousand suits were filed in Burdwan alone.'

LECTURE

XI.

The most ancient remedies for default in payment of Remedies for recovery of revenue were imprisonment, corporal punishment, and revenue. dispossession. Imprisonment was the remedy prescribed Imprisonment. by the Regulations of 26th January 1779 and by the Regulations of 8th June 1787, the zemindar or farmer was to be imprisoned for arrears of revenue, and his principal servant or a sezawul was to collect the revenue during such imprisonment. By the Regulations of 8th September 1790, the defaulters were to be released from confinement when lands sufficient to realise the revenue had been ordered to be sold. And by a rule of 12th August 1791, it is provided

Evidence of Mr. Traut before the Select Committee of the House of Commons (1832), 2072.

* Colebrooke's Supplement, 213.

Arts. 23, 24. Colebrooke's Supplement, 257. Harington's Analysis, Vol. II, 53.

• Colebrooke's Supplement, 495.

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LECTURE
XI.

Sale of land.

that no naib, gomastah, or agent of the zemindar shall be confined for a balance of rent or revenue unless personally responsible for it.' By Regulation XIV of 1793(now repealed as obsolete by Act XVI of 1874), section 4, the defaulter was still to be imprisoned, and the collections to be made by an Ameen (section 6); but by section 8, the power to imprison was suspended if the default was occasioned by drought, inundation or other calamity of season, or by any cause which was not the fault of the proprietor or farmer. Similarly, by sections 23 and 24, sureties might be confined and their lands attached and sold. The lands of disqualified proprietors were to be sold, but the proprietors were not to be imprisoned (section 48). Regulation III of 1794 abolished imprisonment for arrears of revenue except in a few cases. It recites that the rulers of the province have, from the earliest times, exercised the power of imprisonment for such arrears as well as of attaching and selling the defaulter's property. The Governor-General in Council, however, considering the defaulter's property sufficient security, and being solicitous to refrain from every mode of coercion not absolutely necessary, it is enacted by section 3 that proprietors of land, which in any Regulation is to include zemindars, independent talookdars and all actual proprietors who pay revenue direct to Government, shall not be liable to be confined for arrears of revenue or for any demands of the nature of those specified in section 40 of Regulation XIV of 1793 (such as tuccavy, &c.), except in the cases mentioned in section 14 of this Regulation. Arrears are to be recovered by sale as prescribed in this Regulation; and by section 8

' Colebrooke's Supplement, 307.

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demands under section 40 of Regulation XIV of 1793 are to be recovered in the same way. The exceptions are, by section 14, where the lands sold do not realise the amount of the arrears, or where no purchaser can be obtained: in such cases the person and property of the defaulter are liable to the rules of Regulation XIV of 1793. This section is repealed by Act VII of 1868 (B.C.) and Act XVI of 1874. If a proprietor resists process, he may, by section 10, be taken into custody under section 5 of Regulation XIV of 1793.' Those provisions, as appears by Regulation VII of 1799, section 21, were abused; the proprietors being free from all fear of imprisonment, allowed their lands to be sold for arrears, and repurchased them at an under-assessment in fictitious names, or reduced the assessment upon the remaining lands by overrating the portion sold. It is hinted that the old system may in consequence have to be restored. And by section 23, clause 2, a defaulter or surety about to abscond may be arrested under section 5 of Regulation XIV of 1793 without a previous demand under section 3 of that Regulation. And by clause 4 of this section failure to furnish the required accounts also renders the proprietor liable to imprisonment under the directions of the Governor-General in Council. Again, by clause 5, any arrear due from the proprietor at the end of the year, and which cannot be recovered by sale, will be recovered by imprisonment or from his other property as prescribed in section 14 of Regulation III of 1794. This provision is repealed by Act VII of 1868 (B.C.), section 30.

Repealed by s. 22, Regulation VII of 1799 and Act XVI of 1874.
Repealed by Act VII of 1868 (B.C.)

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LECTURE

XI.

Disposession.

Attachment of land.

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Another remedy was dispossession. Thus, in the plan
of settlement of 16th July 1777,1 it is provided that the
cabooleuts shall stipulate for dispossession on default. By
Regulation XIV of 1793, sections 15 and 16, if the defaulting
proprietor resists process of arrest for arrears of revenue, his
estate may be forfeited; and, by section 18, either conferred
on his heirs, or sold at a public sale at the option of the
Governor-General in Council; or the forfeiture may, by
section 16, be commuted for a fine. By Regulation VII of
1799, section 23, clause 6, any arrear due at the end of a
year from a farmer may be realised by the sale of his or his
surety's property or his lease may be cancelled; but he
may still sue
his under-tenants for arrears under section 23
of Regulation XIV of 1793. And by Act IX of 1825,
which deals with some districts not permanently settled,
it is provided that if a malgoozar of such an estate falls
into arrears, and there appears to be any objection to a
sale, the existing engagements with the malgoozar may be
annulled, and the mehal let in farm or held khas for not
more than fifteen years, the malgoozar receiving out of the
surplus proceeds, if any, malikana at the rate of from five
to ten per cent.

By the Regulations of the 25th April 1788 and Regula-
tion II of 1793, section 37, the land is in general to be
deemed a sufficient security for the revenue, but a malzamin
(or surety) is indispensable in case of letting in farm."
So with regard to land in Calcutta, it is by the Regulations
of 29th June 1789 to be held pledged for revenue, and is

1 Colebrooke's Supplement, 210.

2 S. 4.

Colebrooke's Supplement, 270.

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XI.

liable to be sold for arrears in the hands of a purchaser LECTURE from the defaulter. Consequently attachment of the land was one of the means of enforcing payment of arrears of revenue; and this was extended to the lands of sureties by Regulation XIV of 1793, sections 23 and 24, which sections were, however, repealed by Regulation XI of 1822, section 2, clause 2. By section 5 of Regulation XLV of 1793' and section 9 of Regulation III of 1794, the Board of Revenue may direct land which has been ordered to be sold to be attached and committed to the charge of an Ameen under sections 6 and 25 of Regulation XIV of 1793. This is repealed by section 22 of Regulation VII of 1799 and Act XVI of 1874. Regulation VII of 1799, by section 23, clause 2, provides that if arrears of revenue be not paid upon requisition as prescribed, or the Collector satisfied that it will be paid, the Collector shall proceed to attach a sufficient portion of the estate: the attachment to be removed on paying the arrears with interest and expenses. The Collector is to have a discretion, as under section 8 of Regulation XIV of 1793, to suspend the exercise of these powers. Regulation I of 1801 recites that Regulation VII of 1799 has been on the whole successful, but has failed through indiscriminate attachments as well as through delays in sale. It notices that there must have been many instances of proprietors falling into arrears in the early months of the year without fault on their part, but the Collectors have made few reports of such cases, and have not exercised the discretion

1 Colebrooke's Supplement, 492.

3

2 See Sheik Rujub Alee v. Mallick Juffer Alee, S. D. A. (1856), 177. Sujeeoonlal v. Laljee, S. D. A. (1857), 1074.

'S. 23, cl. 3.

• Ib., cl. 7.

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