2 APPENDIX 1. 



(d) to empower a ryot at any time to claim the benefit of the 



Insolvency Court, instead of, as at present, only when 

 a decree has been passed against him ; and 



(e) to protect a ryot's ryotwari land from sale for debt except 



when it has been specifically pledged by him in a bond 

 duly registered, and to require that all bonds for land 

 shall be registered, whatever the value of the land 

 pledged. 



7. The most important point of all is stated by the Government 

 of India thus : [See (a) above.] 



13. The gist of the matter is this : The Deccan ryots were sued, 

 still are sued, and will always be sued unless there be fresh legisla- 

 tion on bonds which are, in many instances, utterly unjust, though 

 they may have been executed in due form. I mean by "unjust" 

 repugnant to the sense of natural justice as between man and man, 

 that moral sense which is present in the minds of all men whether 

 educated or uneducated. The harassment therefrom arising drove 

 these ryots in 1875 to commit agrarian outrages. A special com- 

 mission showed after elaborate inquiry that the essential injustice of 

 the majority of the bonds was the root of the mischief. It is clear 

 that this injustice would be demonstrated by any judicial inquiry 

 which might be had regarding the origin, progress and circumstances 

 of the debts. The existing law provides for judgment being given 

 on the bonds ouly ; that much is certain. Whether it provides for the 

 court, by its own inquiries, going behind the bond is, as we submit, 

 uncertain. The Government of India seems to consider that it does 

 so provide, while apparently admitting that the provision is indirect 

 rather than direct, and must be gathered from scattered rulings and 

 clauses, rather than learnt from positively clear enactment. We 

 submit with deference that the uncertainty is such that the courts 

 practically do not go, can hardly be expected to go, and for the 

 most part are sure not to go, behind the bond. Therefore we urge 

 that there ought to be direct and positive legislation without which 

 the existing evils must be perpetuated. 



16. I must next advert to the apprehension apparently felt* by 

 the Government of India lest we should by our point (a) (causing 

 the court to go behined the bond) unduly throw upon the 

 plaintiff the burden of proof in cases where no defence is 

 attempted. 



