REPRESENTATION..........MANGS ETC. 323
Judi on Maharki lands is intended to provide increase of remuneration to Bhills, Ramoshis and other Inferior Village Servants. Now by no stretch of imagination or by any far-fetched construction of the law relating to Watans can it be said that the Bhills, Ramoshis and other Inferior Village Servants Officiators who are officiating for the Mahar Watandars of a village.
In launching upon this policy of increasing Judi to provide better remuneration for Bhills, Ramoshis and other Inferior Village Servants, it seems to have been forgotten that under the Watan Act each Watan is a distinct and a separate Watan; that separate emoluments are attached to separate Watans; that the benefits of these separate emoluments are separately enjoyable only by families who are Watandars of that Watan and that a Watandar of a Watan cannot transfer his right to hold office and his right to the Watan property to any person who is not a Watandar of the same Watan. A Patilki Watan is separate from a Maharki Watan and both were separate from the Kulkarni Watan when it was in existence. A Patil could not transfer his right in the Patilki Watan to a Mahai ; nor a Mahar his to a Patil. That the Judi on the Watan land could be increased only to pay an increase in the remuneration of the Officiator officiating for the Watandars of the same Watan is a mere corollary of the rule of law that any transfer of a Watan property to a person who is not a Watandar of the same Watan is illegal. It could not have been possible for Government to levy an increase of Judi on Patilki Watan to pay the Mahars. It could not have been possible for Government to levy a Judi on Kulkarni Watan to pay the Patil. For the same reason I submit that that is not open to Government to tax the Maharki Watan lands to pay for Bhills, Ramoshis and other Inferior Village Servants.
On the grounds stated above I have no hesitation in saying that this levy of Judi is the most arbitrary and illegal act on the part of Government.
In this connection I would like to place before Your Excellency the state of affairs which exists in some parts of this Presidency in the matter of the remuneration of the Mahars. The remuneration of the Mahars comes from three sources : (1) Inam Land, (2) Baluta from the villagers which is an annual payment in kind made by the villager to the Mahar and (3) cash payment