206 



RESTJUCTIONS ON THE ALIENATION OF LANDS. 



made clear that the action of a Revenue-officer, when granting 

 or refusing sanction to a permanent alienation, is purely executive, and 

 that any such order sanctioning an alienation is no bar to a suit on 

 any question of title, or to any question relating to any reversionary 

 right, or right of pre-emption, in a Civil Court. 



x- 



1 come now to temporary alienations of land, that is, alienations 

 by means of mortgage, lease or farm. The Bill as introduced allowed 

 for the future only two forms of mortgage, namely, either a usufruc- 

 tuary mortgage, with delivery of possession to the mortgagee, for 

 a maximum period of fifteen years, and on the condition that at 

 the end of the period of mortgage the mortgaged land would revert 

 to the mortgagor or his successor in interest with the mortgage-debt 

 extinguished, or a collateral mortgage which, in certain circumstances, 

 might be converted into a usufructuary mortgage of the nature just 

 mentioned. These provisions were in accordance with the recom- 

 mendations of the Punjab Committee, except that the maximum 

 period of mortgage was reduced from twenty to fifteen years. Exis- 

 ting mortgages were not interfered with, except when any such 

 mortgage was by way of conditional sale. In these cases, the mort- 

 gage was to be null and void, but the Revenue-officer was empowered, 

 'on the application of either party, to order the mortgagor to execute 

 a fresh mortgage of the usufructuary nature just mentioned, for a 

 period of a fifteen years, or for such less term as the Revenue-officer 

 might consider equitable. We now propose the following modifica- 

 tions of these provisions. 



In the first place, we think that, except as regards conditional 

 sales, which ought, in our opinion, to be absolutely prohibited, there 

 is no reason to impose any restrictions, whether as to form or period, 

 on mortgages made by any member of a non-agricultural tribe to any 

 person, or by a member of an agricultural tribe to a member of the 

 same tribe or of a tribe in the same group. Then, in deference to 

 the opinion expressed by a large number of the officers consulted on 

 the Bill, we have extended the maximum term of usufructuary 

 mortgage to twenty years, as was originally recommended by the 

 Punjab Committee. We also propose, in adoption of a valuable 

 suggestion made by MR. DOUIE, the present Chief Secretary to the* 

 Punjab Government, and supported by the Lieutenant-Governor, to 



