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LECTURE
XI.

Personal liability.

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allowed to them to suspend attachment. The Regulation then goes on to provide that no Collector shall attach any estate or farm during the first three months of the year without the sanction of the Board of Revenue, nor subsequently unless the Collector thinks it expedient with a view to induce payment, or to prevent misappropriation of the remaining rents of the year, or to obtain accurate information of the assets for the purpose of sale; in either of which cases the attachment must not be made until after the third month of the year: and the whole is to be attached instead of a portion as authorised by clause 2, section 23 of Regulation VII of 1799. The Ameens employed to collect, while the estate is attached, are to collect according to the existing engagements with the under-tenants,1 except where evidently collusive; but even where evidently collusive, they are not to annul existing leases within the year in which the attachment may have taken place without a decision in a summary suit under Regulation VII of 1799.3

The defaulters were also personally liable. By sections 28 and 44 of Regulation XIV of 1793, the defaulter, after a sale for arrears of revenue, is still liable in person and property for any unrealised balance. Similarly, under section 14 of Regulation III of 1794.5 By Act XI of 1859 the Collector is authorised to proceed first against the personal property of landlords in Sylhet.6

'Regulation XIV of 1793, s. 6.

* Regulation VII of 1799, s. 23, cl. 3.

Regulation V of 1812, s. 4.

↑ S. 28 is repealed by Regulation III of 1794, s. 11; and s. 44 by Act VII of 1868 (B.C.)

5

Repealed by Act VII of 1868 (B.C.) and Act XXVI of 1874. 6 S. 4.

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XI.

A further penalty for non-payment is provided by LECTURE charging interest upon arrears. By the rules of 2nd March Interest

17811 interest was to be charged at one per cent. upon on arrears. all revenue in arrear for fifteen days. Regulation XIV of 1793, section 7, makes interest payable on wilful default: so Regulation VII of 1799, section 23, clause 1. By section 2, Regulation I of 1801, a penalty of one per cent. per mensem for wilful default may be added in addition to interest until attachment. By Regulation VII of 1830, section 8 (repealed by Act XII of 1841, section 1), the penalty and interest were consolidated into one charge of twenty-five per cent. And by Act XII of 1841, section 2, no interest or penalty is to be demanded in respect of any arrears of revenue after 1st January 1842.

or tenure.

The main remedy, however, for arrears of revenue is now Sale of estate the sale of the estate or tenure. We have seen that this was not a very common remedy in Mahomedan times. By the plan of settlement of 16th July 1777, it was directed that a portion of the zemindary should be sold for arrears, or the zemindar dispossessed. And upon the settlement of 1778, it was directed that, while the engagements were to be renewed with zemindars and farmers not in default, the zemindaries in arrear should be sold or let in farm.5 By the Regulations of 8th June 1787,6 sales for arrears were forbidden except under the sanction

'Colebrooke's Supplement, 219.

All repealed by Regulation VII of 1830, s. 2, cl. 1, and Regulation V of 1812, s. 28, cl. 1, itself repealed by Regulation XII of 1824, which in turn is repealed by Regulation VII of 1830, s. 2, cl. 1.

• Colebrooke's Supplement, 210.

4 Art. 3.

⚫ Colebrooke's Supplement, 212.

6 Ib., 253. Harington's Analysis, Vol. II, 53.

LECTURE

XL

406

SALE UNDER THE REGULATIONS.

of the Board of Revenue; and by the Regulations of 25th April 17882 the special sanction of the GovernorGeneral in Council was required.3

After the Permanent Settlement, sale became the ordinary method of realising arrears of revenue, and the discretion at first allowed to the Collector or other authority has been gradually abolished. Shortly after the Permanent Settlement, sales became frequent. It is said that nine-tenths of the land of Bengal was advertised for sale within a few years after the Permanent Settlement, but the actual sales were although numerous, but a small proportion of the sales advertised, and many of the sales which actually took place were collusive. In some other parts of India the proportion of land sold upon the introduction of the power of sale was even greater. The proclamation of the Permanent Settlement announces that upon default a sale of the whole or a sufficient portion of the defaulter's lands will positively and invariably take place to make good the arrear. Regulation XIV of 1793 gives the details of the procedure to be adopted. It first defines an arrear of revenue as follows:8 "If the whole, or any portion, of

1 Art. 56.

2 Colebrooke's Supplement, 272.

3 Art. 31.

5

See Robinson's Land Revenue, 28.

Compare the evidence of Mr. Traut before the Select Committee of the House of Commons (1832), 2341, 2342, with Mr. Holt Mackenzie's evidence, 2598.

See the evidence before the same Committee of Mr. Newnham, 2715, 2716, 2719; and of Mr. Robertson before the Select Committee of the House of Lords (1830), 1596, 1597.

7 Regulation I of 1793, s. 7.

8
® S. 2.

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XI.

the kist or instalment payable in any month, by a proprie LRCture tor or farmer of land, shall remain undischarged on the first of the following month," that is an arrear of revenue. This definition has been varied by the different Regulations and Acts. The Regulation then, by section 13, provides that if a proprietor be in arrear at the end of the year, and be not in confinement, and have not given security, and instituted a suit to try the claim under the Regulation, his lands, or a sufficient portion thereof, will be liable to be sold, but not without the sanction of the Governor-General in Council, This is repealed by Regulation XI of 1822, section 2, clause 1. Again, by section 22 (repealed by Regulation III of 1794, section 11), if the proprietor has been in confinement, but the Ameen has not been able to realise the amount of arrears by the end of the year, the lands of the defaulter may be sold as before. Arrears are to be realised from female proprietors and from proprietors of estates under managers by sale.1 With regard to this class of proprietors, the Regulations of 29th March 17812 had exempted their lands from sale, but made the principal executive officer personally liable for default. The details of procedure in sales for arrears were laid down by Regulation XLV of 1793 (repealed by section 2 of Act IV of 1846). Further rules of procedure were contained in Regulation III of 1794, sections 4 to 7 (repealed by Regulation VII of 1799, section 22), and again by Regulation V of 1796 (repealed by clause 1, section 2 of Regulation XI of 1822). Regulation VII of 1799, after referring in the preamble and section 21 to the abuses which have followed the abolition

1 S. 48.

Colebrooke's Supplement, 222.

LECTURE
XI.

408

SALE UNDER THE REGULATIONS.

of imprisonment for default, which abuses I have before referred to, provides that purchases in fictitious names shall render the land liable to confiscation or such other penalty as the Governor-General in Council may think fit;' and that defaulters cannot purchase under pain of forfeiture. This latter provision reversed the rule of 8th October 1790,3 and was itself repealed by Regulation XI of 1822, section 2, clause 1, which last Regulation, however, by section 13, clauses 2, 3, re-enacted both the above provisions. But by section 30 of Act XII of 1841 and section 29, Act I of 1845, repealed by Act XI of 1859, and substantially re-enacted by section 53, the proprietor is contemplated as a possible purchaser.*

Regulation I of 1801 was passed to remedy the delays which took place in sales for arrears. It substitutes distress and sale of small estates for attachment,5 and provides that estates may be sold for refusal by defaulting proprietors and farmers to deliver up accounts under Regulations XLV of 1793 and VII of 1799.6 It also provides with reference to section 2 of Regulation V of 1796, which required the portion sold to be as nearly as possible of the required value, that the Board of Revenue may sell the whole estate. Regulation V of 1812 provides that sales of entire estates for arrears of revenue are not liable to be annulled on the ground that one or more sharers may not have possession of his or

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Colebrooke's Supplement, 496.

Mussamut Neynum v. Muzuffur Wahid, 11 W. R., 265. 5 S. 4.

Ss. 3 and 5. Repealed by Regulation XI of 1822, s. 2, cl. 1. 7 S. 6. Repealed by Regulation XI of 1822, s. 2, cl. 1.

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