TMI Blog1941 (4) TMI 20X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... r many years part of this district had been irrigated by canals flowing from the Indus and that arrangements had been made between the Khan and the British Government by which occupiers of land benefited were made subject to a water tax assessed by British officials, collected by Kalat officials, of which the proceeds were divided equally between the two Governments. This species of dual control naturally proved irksome, and the remedy was found in the agreement in question styled, without prejudice to its accurate description in law, the Treaty of 1903. it is in the following terms: Agreement entered into by His Highness the Khan of Kalat, Mir Mahmud Khan, G.C.I.E., on the one part, and by the Hon'ble Colonel C. E. Yate, C.S.I., C.M.G., Agent to the Governor-General in Baluchistan, on the other part subject to the confirmation of His Excellency the Viceroy and Governor-General in Council. Executed at Sibi on the seventeenth day of February, one thousand nine hundred and three, I. Whereas it has been found by experience to be to the advantage of both the British Government and His Highness Beglar Begi Mir Mahmud Khan, G.C.I.E., Khan of Kalat, that the Niabat of Nasirab ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... at Station, until it meets the line of pillars erected about 4 years ago by the Magassis and Jama lis as their mutual boundary. It then follows this line of pillars Southwards to the Sind border, passing about 500 yards to the West of the point where the Sonwah has been closed. III Whereas it is possible that the lower portion of the Manjuti lands enclosed by a straight line drawn from the place where the Dur Mohammad Wah crosses the railway, near mile 368 to a point on the Jacobabad-Shaphur Road, 8 miles to the North of where the Dur Mohammad Wah crosses that road may hereafter be brought under irrigation, His Highness the Khan of Kalat hereby agrees on behalf of himself, his heirs and successors, to make over and cede to the British Government in perpetuity that portion of the Manjuti land in the same manner as the Nasirabad Niabat above referred to, and it is hereby agreed that the British Government shall pay to His Highness annually an additional rent of rupees two thousand five hundred, making a total quit-rent of Its. 1,17,500 to be paid on the first day of April one thousand nine hundred and four and subsequent years. IV And whereas it is advisable that any further Ka ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... in the preparation of the settlement records has been the same for the eastern and western sections with one exception. In the eastern section it was considered necessary to make detailed enquiries into all cases where possession of Land had been acquired by a doubtful title. The principle which was adopted was as follows : Wherever figures of cultivation for the last 12 years showed that an occupant had cultivated one-third of the holdings he claimed, no inquiry into title was to be made. Inquiries into title were made wherever this condition was not fulfilled, provided the claim of the occupant had not been established by some previous decisions of competent authority. The principle followed involved a great deal of trouble, and the nature of evidence to he collected was often extremely complicated. In the western section, owing to the existence of old Sanads from His Highness, the Khan of Kalat, it was decided in a note of the conference held on 5th October, 1906, between the Hon'ble the Agent to the Governor-General, Revenue Commissioner, and myself that the following principles should be employed. The total irrigable lands were to be divided in three classes. A ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ith all the rights and privileges, State or personal, as well as full and exclusive revenue, civil and criminal jurisdiction and all other forms of administration are words creating rights between two sovereign States which were never yet found in any mere commercial agreement. It is true that the right ceded is the entire management and the consideration is an annual rent; and as is made clearer in para. 4 of the Treaty, the transaction is in fact a perpetual lease of the territory at a quit rent. Nevertheless the Sovereign of Kalat made over to the British State the whole of his sovereign rights, though as the cession takes the form of a lease the territory does not pass so as to become part of the British Dominions, but still remains Kalat territory. The Government therefore are entitled to rely, if necessary, upon the provisions of the Foreign Jurisdiction Act, 1890, S. I. : It is and shall be lawful for Her Majesty the Queen to hold, exercise and enjoy any jurisdiction which Her Majesty now has or hereafter may have within a foreign country in the same and as ample a manner as if Her Majesty had acquired that jurisdiction by the cession or conquest of territory. 5. By ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... land before annexation of Pondoland by the British Government. Lord Halsbury, L. C, in his judgment of the Judicial Committee said: It is a well-established principle of law that the transactions of independent States between each other are governed by other laws than those which municipal Courts administer. It is no answer to say that by ordinary principles of international law private property is respected by the sovereign which accepts the cession and assumes the duties and legal obligations of the former sovereign with respect to such private property within the ceded territory. All that can be properly meant by such a proposition is that, according to the well understood rules of international law a change of sovereignty ought not to affect private property, but no municipal tribunal has authority to enforce such an obligation. 7. In Secretary of State for India v. Bai Rajbai 42 I.A. 229= 39 Bom. 625= 2 L.W. 731 the circumstances were that in 1817 the Gaekwar had ceded the district of Ahmadabad to the British Government. In 1898 claims were made by the plaintiffs against the Government asserting permanent rights to lands within the district existing before the cession. T ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nment of India had the right to recognise or not recognise the existing titles to land. In the case of the lands in suit they decided not to recognise them, and it follows that the plaintiffs have no recourse against the Government in the municipal Courts. An explanation for Government action was at one time given that the plaintiffs were in breach of their conditions of tenure to the Khan of Kalat. Whether this be true or not is clearly irrelevant in view of the established law regulating the position of the Government as against former proprietors Neither it nor any action of Government officials indicates any intention on the part of Government to recognise this existing title in these lands. On the contrary, the decision made in October, 1906, by the high officials, together with Mr. Smart, that the plaintiffs were only to be given inalienable occupancy rights over some of the lands while the C lands were to be entered as Government lands indicates conclusively what the intention of Government was; and it only needed the confirmation of the report by the Government of India, which was signified on 1st April, 1908, to conclude the matter. In accordance with these authorities ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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