120 Report on the District of Azimgurh. [Feb, 



Commissioners was speedily so completely occupied with their other 

 duties, that the investigations lay thus in abeyance for seven years, 

 till in 1835 a separate officer was appointed to close the investigations. 

 When this took place, the views which led to the original enactment, 

 had become completely altered, and all the claims which had been kept 

 alive for seven or eight years, were speedily thrown out. In addition 

 to this, the appellate authority, as well as the primary, had become 

 clogged and overwhelmed, till about the same period a special provision 

 was made for the discharge of its functions. Hence many of the claims 

 which had been allowed by the Special Commissioner in the early 

 part of the period between 1829 and 1836, and the parties put in 

 possession accordingly, were disallowed in appeal at the close of the 

 period, and the decree holders again dispossessed, and made to account 

 for mesne profits. 



104th. Amongst a people extremely sensitive regarding their rights 

 in landed property, it may well be conceived what injury resulted 

 from operations such as these. It is unnecessary to notice here the 

 evil effects upon the prosperity and morals of the people. Its effect in 

 all estates which had been purchased at public auction for arrears of 

 public revenue (and very numerous they were) shewed itself in the 

 refusal of the members of the old village communities to pay their 

 rents. Hence the proprietor of such an estate was sometimes com- 

 pelled to file sixty or seventy suits in a single village or Mehal. 



105th. Secondly, — By far the larger number of suits were instituted 

 in Pergunnah Nizamabad, and many of these resulted from the fiscal 

 mismanagement of the Pergunnah whilst under settlement, from 1822 

 to 1834. It was the field where every young and inexperienced officer 

 began to make settlements, or to introduce a new system, and hence 

 was the subject of many crude and rash experiments. Amongst these 

 was the arbitrary fixing of rent rates, from which the Government, 

 demand was deducted. In proceedings under Reg. vu, 1822, this was 

 frequently done, and with the most injurious effect. The arbitrary 

 rates could often not be exacted, but they gave the Malgoozar a pretext 

 for demanding them, and consequently involved him in litigation. 



106th. Thirdly, — The very unsettled state of the landed property 

 was another fruitful source of litigation. Disputes regarding boun- 

 daries, and between Putteedars, were constantly thrown into the 

 summary suit file. 



107th. Fourthly, — But all these causes were ten-fold magnified by 

 the delay which used to occur in the decision of these suits, then 

 falsely called summary. Till the Sudder Board of Revenue took up 

 the subject in 1833 with their wonted energy, suits of this sort used to 



