TMI Blog1876 (2) TMI 1X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... te and hereditary mokurreree tenure, inasmuch as it contains the essential words, generation to generation, which in documents of that kind have always been considered to have that effect; and their Lordships do not find in the particular document any special terms which would distinguish it from a grant of an ordinary mokurreree istimraree tenure. It is clear on the , evidence that Shurfoonnissa Begum died before her father, and not very long after the creation of the tenure; and further, that after her death, the father during his life, and afterwards his widows, who, by the Hindu law, are his heirs, continued to receive the rent reserved from those in possession of the lands, the receipts for such rent being, with one exception, taken ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... es the question which the High Court has dealt with: namely, whether, on the death of Shurfoonnissa without heirs, the right to the possession of the land reverted to the original grantor, or whether the tenure on such a failure of heirs should be taken to have escheated to the Crown. 4. The doctrine of escheat to the Crown in the case of a vacant inheritance was much considered by this Court in the case of The Collector of Masulipatam and Cavaly Vencata Narrainapah, which is reported in the 8th volume of Moore's Reports, Indian Appeals, page 500. In that case the property in question was a zemindary. The last male zemindar had died, leaving a widow, who. took a widow's estate, and upon her death there were no heirs of her husban ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... pellant's claim as wholly and merely determinable by Hindu law. They conceive that the title which he sets up may rest on grounds of general or universal law. The last owner of the property in question in this suit derived her title under an express grant from the Government to her husband, a Brahmin, whom she succeeded as heiress-at-law. If upon her death there had been any heirs of her husband, those heirs must have been ascertained by the principles of the Hindu law; but by reason of the prevalence of a state of law in the Mofussil which renders the ascertainment of the heirs to take on the death of an owner of' property a question substantially dependent on the status of that owner. Thus the property being originally and remaini ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... widow was competent to create; and it was held that the Government took subject to the charge, and the suit was dismissed, but without prejudice to the right of the Collector, as representing the Crown, to redeem the charge and recover the estate. The property, no doubt, in this case was a zemindary; but the decision seems to establish the principle, that where there is a failure of heirs, the Crown, by the general prerogative, will take the property by escheat, but will take it subject to any trusts or charges affecting it. There, therefore, seems to be nothing in the nature of the tenure which should prevent the Crown from so taking a mokurreree, subject to the payment of the rent reserved upon it. 5. It has been argued, however, that ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... on that there is no authority upon which the power of taking by escheat can be attributed to the zemindar. The principles of English feudal law are clearly inapplicable to a Hindu zemindar. On the other hand, it is clear that, if the zemindar has not such a right, the general right of the Crown subsists, and must prevail. 7. On the whole, therefore, their Lordships think that the High Court have come to a correct conclusion in holding that, supposing the parties in possession have nothing but their possession to depend upon (a question on which their Lordships give no opinion), the superior title, under which alone they can be ousted from possession of the lands, is not in the zemindar or his representatives, but in the Crown. They will, ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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