Baba Budan Archives · Legislative History

1955 — The Mysore (Religious and Charitable) Inams Abolition Act

A statutory turning point in the history of religious and charitable inam tenure: legal vesting, protection of qualifying occupancy rights, and compensation arrangements.

Archive ID: BD-INAM-1955-01 · Enactment: Mysore Act XVIII of 1955 · Source exhibited: 24-page later consolidated statutory text (selected pages below)

Essential distinction. Abolition of an inam did not, merely by enactment of the law, prove that Government physically took possession of every parcel, evicted every occupant, or extinguished every legally protected landholding right. The Act contemplated statutory vesting from an applicable notified date, while separately providing for occupancy, tenancy, possession safeguards and compensation. These are distinct legal and factual questions.

On this page

The Act and its scope
What vesting did — and did not — establish
Occupancy, tenancy and revenue records
Compensation and Tasdik
Application to the Baba Budan archive
Selected statutory exhibits
Source and editorial limitations

The Act and its scope

The Mysore (Religious and Charitable) Inams Abolition Act, 1955 created a legal framework for the abolition of specified religious and charitable inam tenures. It concerned rights in inam lands; it did not, by its own terms, abolish the religious institutions associated with them.

Commencement mattered. Section 1(4) provided for commencement of the operative provisions by Government notification in relation to relevant inams. Section 2 defined the “date of vesting” by reference to that notification. The year 1955 is therefore the year of enactment, not automatically the date of vesting for each Baba Budan landholding.

Legal vesting is not the same as physical possession

Section 3 described the legal consequences that followed vesting of an inam in the State. Subject to rights expressly saved under the Act, the inamdar’s specified rights and interests ceased and vested in the State from the applicable date. This was a substantive legal change and should not be described as a merely administrative renaming.

But legal vesting and actual physical possession must not be conflated. Section 3(1)(g) contemplated Government taking possession and documents relating to an inam, while providing that persons considered prima facie entitled to registration as occupants or continuation as tenants should not be dispossessed on that basis. Whether Government actually took possession of any particular parcel is a matter for the corresponding proceedings and land records.

What this means: The Act cannot, standing alone, prove that every estate, plantation, building or survey-number parcel historically connected with Baba Budan Dargah was physically taken over by the Government in 1955. Nor does the absence of evidence of physical takeover negate statutory vesting where a relevant notification and the statutory conditions are established.

Occupancy, tenancy and revenue records

The statutory framework differentiated among categories of tenants, occupants, holders of minor inams and the inamdar. Sections 4–8 provided distinct routes for recognition or continuation of certain rights, subject to applicable conditions and exclusions. Sections 9 and 9A dealt with the adjudication of occupancy claims and the recording of decisions in land records.

Consequently, the legal outcome for an individual landholding cannot be inferred from the word “abolition” alone. The relevant notification, claimant status, competent authority’s decision and subsequent Record of Rights or mutation entries must be considered together.

Compensation and Tasdik allowance

Chapter III set out compensation arrangements associated with vesting. The exhibited consolidated text includes a provision for payment of the basic annual sum as a Tasdik allowance under Section 19. The wording reproduced in this PDF reflects later legislative amendments; it must not be represented as a verbatim quotation from the statute in its original 1955 form.

Historical Tasdik payments made under earlier Mysore administrative arrangements should likewise not automatically be equated with compensation calculated under the post-abolition statute. Their dates, legal basis and orders must be identified separately.

What this proves for Baba Budan Dargah

This statute supplies the legislative framework for interpreting the later transition of religious and charitable inam tenure. It does not name or schedule the individual Baba Budan properties in the pages exhibited here, nor does it establish a specific vesting date, a parcel-by-parcel outcome, or the physical possession history of those properties.

Later official and judicial accounts refer to the application of the inams abolition regime to lands associated with the institution. Those later accounts should be presented as evidence of what they report, while the underlying notifications, occupancy orders, Tasdik calculations and revenue changes remain separate archival targets.

Outstanding primary records: the relevant Gazette commencement/vesting notification(s); original inam schedules and village or survey-number descriptions; occupancy and tenancy adjudications; compensation/Tasdik determination orders; and subsequent Record of Rights or mutation entries. Until recovered and checked, no universal assertion of Government physical takeover should be made.

Selected pages from the statutory compilation

These twelve reproductions retain their original PDF page numbers. The selection is intentionally non-consecutive; omitted pages are not implied to be absent from the 24-page source. Select an image to open its full-size version.

Reproduction of page 2 from later consolidated Mysore Religious and Charitable Inams Abolition Act text — **PDF page 02** — Title, application and statutory scope. View full size

Reproduction of page 3 from later consolidated Mysore Religious and Charitable Inams Abolition Act text — **PDF page 03** — Commencement by notification; meaning of the date of vesting. View full size

Reproduction of page 4 from later consolidated Mysore Religious and Charitable Inams Abolition Act text — **PDF page 04** — Definitions and classification of inams. View full size

Reproduction of page 5 from later consolidated Mysore Religious and Charitable Inams Abolition Act text — **PDF page 05** — Section 3: legal consequences of vesting. View full size

Reproduction of page 6 from later consolidated Mysore Religious and Charitable Inams Abolition Act text — **PDF page 06** — Section 3: possession, safeguards and continued rights. View full size

Reproduction of page 7 from later consolidated Mysore Religious and Charitable Inams Abolition Act text — **PDF page 07** — Sections 4–5: qualifying occupancy rights. View full size

Reproduction of page 10 from later consolidated Mysore Religious and Charitable Inams Abolition Act text — **PDF page 10** — Sections 7–8: rights concerning minor inams and inamdars. View full size

Reproduction of page 11 from later consolidated Mysore Religious and Charitable Inams Abolition Act text — **PDF page 11** — Section 9: occupancy claims and procedures (later amended). View full size

Reproduction of page 12 from later consolidated Mysore Religious and Charitable Inams Abolition Act text — **PDF page 12** — Section 9A: entries in the Record of Rights (later inserted). View full size

Reproduction of page 14 from later consolidated Mysore Religious and Charitable Inams Abolition Act text — **PDF page 14** — Compensation and the basic annual sum. View full size

Reproduction of page 16 from later consolidated Mysore Religious and Charitable Inams Abolition Act text — **PDF page 16** — Section 19: Tasdik allowance (later amended text). View full size

Reproduction of page 20 from later consolidated Mysore Religious and Charitable Inams Abolition Act text — **PDF page 20** — Section 28: certain rights conferred by Government. View full size

Source description and editorial limitations

Document displayed: Mysore (Religious and Charitable) Inams Abolition Act, 1955, Act 18 of 1955, in a 24-page commercially reproduced, subsequently amended compilation bearing the name Sol Infotech Pvt. Ltd. / CourtKutchehry. It is not an original 1955 Gazette facsimile. Its text and annotations include amendments enacted decades after 1955, and some transcription/typographical irregularities. This page uses the compilation to illustrate the statutory framework, not to certify the wording in force on any particular historical date.

For precise legal interpretation, the original enactment, applicable amending Acts, official Gazette notifications and the version of the law operative at the relevant date should be consulted. This is a historical documentary presentation, not an adjudication of title or legal advice.