118 Report on the District of Azimgurh. [Feb. 



the Courts of Law, but it is well to see how the present practice of the 

 Courts affects them. Summary suits for rent will be decided accord- 

 ing to these rates, unless proof be adduced that they have been set 

 aside by the Dewanny Courts, or altered by voluntary agreement; 

 and such voluntary agreement should never be admitted on the 

 denial of either party, except under the clearest documentary proof, 

 or alteration of the rates previously made by both parties in the 

 register of the village. Any cultivator forcibly dispossessed of the 

 land he holds, according to the register, might sue summarily before 

 the Collector for reinstatement, to whatever class he might belong, 

 and would be re-instated accordingly. A summary process is provided 

 to maintain a cultivator in possession against his Zemindar, but no 

 summary process for ejecting a tenant at will is open to the Zemin- 

 dar. If any Ryot fails immediately to liquidate a demand for rent^ 

 adjudged against him in a summary process by the revenue authori- 

 ties, he is liable to ejectment, and his land is then made over to the 

 Zemindar. Tenants at will seldom resist the requisitions of those who 

 are really their Zemindars, that is, who claim the supremacy which 

 has been before described ; but few would yield up their possession in 

 favor of an auction purchaser. In such cases, then, although the 

 Zemindar possesses legally the right of ousting the tenant at will, he 

 can only legally enforce it through a regular suit. The Courts also 

 can of course always take cognizance of claims to be removed from 

 one class of cultivators to another. It is however very questionable 

 how far they could interfere in altering the rates fixed by the revenue 

 officer, unless on pleas originating subsequently to the settlement. 

 They could at least only take cognizance of the question as between 

 man and man, between the Zemindar and the Ryot, as it might be 

 affected by contracts existing between them. They could not posi- 

 tively alter any rate fixed by the Collector. If the estate were held 

 kham, or farmed, or sold by the Government in consequence of 

 default, the settlement rates might be demanded, notwithstanding the 

 decree of the Court. If this were not the case, the rental might be 

 reduced below the Government demand, and the interference of the 

 Civil Courts might be thus exercised in regulating the Jumma, which 

 it is an established principle that they have no power to call in 

 question. 



101st. If it were desired to introduce the European system of 

 farming, or, in Indian parlance, to make the whole lands of the village 

 Seer, this could only be effected by purchasing up the rights of 

 the two first classes, and by purchasing out, or ejecting, the last class, 

 probably by long and expensive litigation. The insuperable aversion 



