238 



the inference that there was an " implied" contract. This 

 state of the law is an incentive to violent proceedings and 

 places at a disadvantage land-holders who are willing to 

 allow ryots to retain their holdings on payment of enhanced 

 rents. In some respects, the decisions of the court have dis- 

 allowed the just rights of the Zemindars to enhance money 

 rents with reference to the increase in the prices of produce, 

 while the Government itself exercises such a right in the 

 case of the ryots it directly deals with. The law as regards 

 the rights of the Zemindar to regulate the mode of cultiva- 

 tion or the nature of the crops grown, and of the tenants to 

 make improvements and obtain compensation therefor when 

 they are evicted, is unsettled. In two other respects, the 

 landlord is placed at a disadvantage. He cannot sue for 

 rent either in a Revenue court or in an ordinary Civil court, 

 unless he offers to the tenant such a puttah, as he is bound to 

 accept. It often happens that there is a dispute about the 

 terms of the puttah leading to litigation extending over 

 several years, as to whether the puttah offered by the land- 

 lord was a proper one or not. If it is decided by a court that 

 any condition in a puttah offered was an improper one, to what- 

 ever extent the claims of the tenant might be disallowed in 

 other respects, the landlord forfeits the rent for the whole 

 period of litigation. Again, under the existing law, the land- 

 lord's claim for rent is not recognized as giving him a lien on 

 the land in the hands of the stranger to whom the occupancy 

 right mi'>'ht be transferred. This acts as an incentive to 

 fraudulent conduct on the part of the tenant and, by rendering 

 the recovery of rent difficult in cases in which a transferable 

 occupancy right exists, makes it the interest of the landlord 

 to endeavour to destroy it. There are, besides, various other 

 flaws and omissions in the Act which promote disputes 

 between landlords and tenants and embitter their relations, 

 and the Act itself has been so carelessly drawn up that 

 Mr. Justice Hollo way once declared judicially that he did not 

 in the least profess to understand its provisions. 



87. The result is what might be expected, and there can 



Present unsatisfactory ^C UO doubt that the prCSCUt COudition of 



condition of the Zemin- the Zemiudari ryots is very unsatisfactory. 

 ^''^ 'y°*'- In the Southern districts where the occu- 



pancy rights of ryots have all along been conceded, the ryots 

 hold their own against the Zemindar and often defy them. In 

 the Northern districts, the ryots are in a miserable condition 

 and the Zemindars have everything their own wtvj. There 

 is abundant *^^estimony to this effect. Mr. Forbes, the Col- 



