Sovereign Grant

12. The original of the underlined sentence, in the Gazette Notification reads:

“aur unko sakoonti makan waqya Bara Mahal Shahjahanabad inayat marhmat pharmate hain.”

13. It is to be noted that the disposition evidenced by the Firman, Ex. P.-I, is a tripartite grant made by an autocratic ruler to his subject in recognition of long, meritorious services rendered by the latter. This grant belongs to the category of dispositions, which under the English Common LawCommon law The legal system that originated in England and is now in use in the United States. It is based on court decisions rather than statutes passed by the legislature. are known as “Crown grants”.

14. The tenor and language of the Firman, particularly the words “aapko Inayat ataa Kiya Jata Hai” unmistakably mark it out as a Sovereign grant. According to Steingass’ Persian-English Dictionary “inayat” (Noun) Signifies “a favour, a gift, a present a bounty” and “Atta (Verb) means “to give, to confer a benefit or present with”; and ‘Atta ‘(Noun) implies ‘Giving, a present gift, donation, favour, a grant, endowment, concession; consideration”.

15. In the widest sense ‘grant’ may comprehend everything that is granted or passed from one to another by deed. But commonly the term is applied to rights created or transferred by the Crown, e,g. grants of pensions, patents, charges, franchise (See Earl Jowitt’s Dictionary of English LawLaw Positive command of sovereign or divine. One can be ruled either by a Statute, a Statue, or a Statement. Legislation is the rule-making process by a political or religious organisation. Physics governs natural law. Logical thinking is a sign of a healthy brain function. Dharma is eternal for Sanatanis.).

16. In EnglandEngland In England, the Parliament was originally an advisory body summoned to consult with the monarch, and the courts exercised delegated royal powers, as “lions beneath the throne”. contrary to the ordinary rule applicable to grants by a subject, grants by the Crown are usually construed most favorably for the Crown. The rule in case of Royal Grants is that general words will not pass prerogative rights by implication.

17. This general rule is, however, capable of important relaxations in favour of the subject. If the intention of the Sovereign is obvious from the document which in precise, unequivocal terms defines the extent and nature of the benefit conferred, it must take, effect. No question of seeking extrinsic aid to its construction arises. If the grant is for valuable consideration it must be construed strictly in favour of the grantee, for the honor of the Sovereign and where two constructions are possible, one valid and the other void, that which is valid ought to be preferred, for the honour of the Sovereign, ought to be more regarded than the Sovereign’s profit. Where, however, two interpretations may be given to the grant, both of which are good, that which is most favourable to the Crown is in many cases preferred (see Halsbury’s Laws of England, 3rd Edn. Vol. 7, Paragraphs 669 and 670, pages 314-316).

18. These rules of interpretation have been applied to Sovereign grants in IndiaIndia Bharat Varsha (Jambu Dvipa) is the name of this land mass. The people of this land are Sanatan Dharmin and they always defeated invaders. Indra (10000 yrs) was the oldest deified King of this land. Manu's jurisprudence enlitened this land. Vedas have been the civilizational literature of this land. Guiding principles of this land are : सत्यं वद । धर्मं चर । स्वाध्यायान्मा प्रमदः । Read more, also (See Raja Rajinder Chand v. Sukhi, (1956) SCR 889 (as per S. K. Das J. at page No. 902) = (AIR 1957 SC 286 at page No. 292); Gulabdas Jagjivandas v. Collector of Surat, (1878) 6 Ind Ap 54 (PC); Sheikh Sultan Sani v. Shekh Ajmoddin, (1892) 20 Ind App 50 (PC); Aziz-un-nissa v. Tasadduq Husain Khan, (1901) 28 Ind App 65 (PC); Ram Narayan Singh v. Ram Saran Lal, ILR 46 Cal 683 .

19. It is in the light of the above principles that we have to determine whether by the Firman, Ex. P-1 the Ruler intended to grant a life-estate or an absolute estate in the suit house.

20. Mr. Hardy, learned Counsel for the appellants contends that the disposition in dispute would not fall within an exception to the general rule according to which a Sovereign grant is construed in favour of the Sovereign, because firstly, the last sentence of the Firman, the interpretation of which alone is in question, declares in plain, self-contained and unambiguous terms that the grant of the house is an out and out gift to the grantee, and secondly, the grantor and the grantee, being Muslims, the gift would, under Mohammedan Law, have the effect of conveying an absolute heritable estate. In this connection, support has been sought from certain observations of the Privy Council in Sardar Nawazish Ali Khan v. Sardar Ali Raza, 75 Ind App 62 at page No. 77 = (AIR 1948 PC 134 at page No. 138), which are as follows:

“In general, MuslimMuslim A community gathered around Muhammad (d. 632 CE) and confessed that Muhammad was the last of Prophets and he received Quran through Zibreel Farista from Allah. Hadith of Sahih Bukhari faithfully recorded the commands of Muhammad. He acknowledged the contribution of Jesus to the Abrahamic Religion. Law draws no distinction between real and personal property, and their Lordships know of no authoritative work which affirms that Muslim Law recognizes the splitting up of ownership of land into estates, or in point of quality like legal and equitable estates, or in point of duration like estates in fee simple, in tail, for life, or in remainder. What Muslim Law does recognize and insist on, is the distinction between the corpus of the property itself (ayn) and the usufruct in the property (manafi). Over the corpus of the property the law recognizes only absolute dominion, heritable and unrestricted in point of timeTime Where any expression of it occurs in any Rules, or any judgment, order or direction, and whenever the doing or not doing of anything at a certain time of the day or night or during a certain part of the day or night has an effect in law, that time is, unless it is otherwise specifically stated, held to be standard time as used in a particular country or state. (In Physics, time and Space never exist actually-“quantum entanglement”), and where a gift of the corpus seeks to impose a condition inconsistent with such absolute dominion’ the condition is rejected as repugnant, but interest limited in point of time can be created in the usufruct of the property and the dominion over the corpus takes effect subject to any such limited interests.”(emphasis added) [Refer AIR 1975 SC 1518 : (1975) Suppl. SCR 240 : (1975) 2 SCC 122]