§ SIR H. COTTON (Nottingham, E.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for India whether large sums of money were realised by officers of Government in the Cheerab Colony of the Punjab from the colonists on account of unauthorised fines; and whether it was one of the objects of the disallowed Colonisation Bill to legalise these fines and to deprive the civil courts of all jurisdiction in the matter.
§ MR. HOBHOUSEThe earlier agreements under which lands were granted in the Cheerab Colony made the tenancy liable to forfeiture if a breach of any condition was committed. In practice the colonisation officers allowed tenants to compound infractions of the conditions by payment of fines, and refrained from resorting to the extreme penalty of forfeiture. The later agreements expressly provide for fines as well as! forfeiture I am not aware that large sums have been thus realised. The Bill provided for the enforcement by means of fines of the conditions of tenancy in the Cheerab and other Colonies, in cases in which forfeiture would be an excessive penalty; it excluded the jurisdiction of
† See(4) Debates, clxix, 1015.836 the Civil Courts in any matter which the revenue officer was empowered to dispose of, following the analogy of the Tenancy and Land Revenue Acts of the province, and it prescribed the procedure and system of appeal provided by those Acts.
§ SIR H. COTTONasked if the fines had not mounted up to ten lakhs of rupees?