1845. j the owners, and occupants of the soil in Bengal, 8$c. 545 



A resident cultivator considering himself aggrieved by ejectment, 

 has a right to a trial of his grievance. If the ejectment be accompanied 

 with violence he may apply for redress to the Magistrate, who besides 

 inquiring into the violence, will on plaint being made under Reg. IV. 

 1840, call on the zemindar to prove his claim to the exercise of the 

 right of summary ejectment, and should it appear that the cultivator 

 had no claim, he will permit his summary ejectment; but should the 

 case appear to be of the nature of those above described, he will either 

 maintain the cultivator in possession, or stay the zemindar from dis- 

 posing of the lands for a fixed period, within which he will instruct 

 the cultivator to bring an action to try the ejectment under the 5th 

 clause, Section XVIII. Reg. VIII. 1819, and the construction put 

 upon it by the Circular Orders of the Dewannee Adawlut, dated 15th 

 November 1833, which states that, " The declaration that it is illegal 

 to oust resident cultivators except under circumstances, necessarily 

 implies a remedy in case of the contravention of the rule, &c. &c." 



The general laws of the country, if fully enforced, afford a degree of 

 protection to the cultivator which is rather weakened than strengthen- 

 ed by a special contract or lease ; even in the formation of new settle- 

 ments the cultivators will be found unwilling to enter into written 

 engagements, they have a sort of instinctive feeling that it is not their 

 interest to do so ; and they dislike the signature of the counterpart of 

 a lease, which renders obligatory on them the annual payment of 

 sums for the realization of which they have no security but the crop 

 dependent on the contingencies of the season: in settlements besides 

 the general laws of the country in their favour, they have the special 

 protection afforded by Section XI. Reg. VII. 1822, and are well aware 

 that if unable to assert their privileges under those general laws, that 

 the mere possession of a pottah will not render them much stronger, but 

 will have very much the effect of a special bond for a portion of a debt, 

 which without affording any additional guarantee for the payment of 

 the amount included in it, serves to throw doubt on the remainder 

 which is excluded, and will tend to deprive them of the benefit of 

 the protection to be derived from the general law with regard to any 

 privileges not enumerated in it. 



