SAVINGS.

Irrigation. The Act saves (section 2) any right of the Government to regulate the distribution of the waters of rivers and streams flowing in natural channels, and of natural lakes and ponds, or of the water flowing, collected, retained or distributed in or by any channel or other work constructed at the public expense for irrigation. This is in accordance with Act VIII of 1873, sec. 32, cl. (f). The power of the Executive to carry out schemes of irrigation, so important in a country like India1, will thus remain unhampered. The Act also saves all enactments not expressly repealed, such, for example, as the Forest Act, and, in the Panjáb, Forest-con- Act IV of 1872, sec. 7, and in Oudh, Act XVIII of 1876, sec. 4. servancy. It thus avoids interference with forest-conservancy and with local

Local usage.

Licenses.

History of the Act.

usage in those parts of India in which customary law prevails. It also ex abundanti cautelâ, saves any customary or other right (not being a license) over land which any person may possess irrespective of any other land. Such rights, when conferred by license, are dealt with by Chapter VI.

LICENSES.

The Act ends with a chapter on Licenses, which, though mentioned in the Evidence Act, secs. 116, 117, were nowhere dealt with in the body of Indian codified law. It defines 'license' as a grant of a right to do in or upon the grantor's immoveable property something which would in the absence of such right be unlawful, such right not amounting to an easement or an interest in the property'; declares who may grant licenses; states when alone they are transferable (herein varying from Wood v. Ledbitter, 13 M. & W. 838), declares the grantor's duties and rights, and the licensee's rights on revocation and on eviction.

The Bill which became the Easements Act was drawn by the writer, circulated in 1878, and again in 1879, to the Local Governments, revised by the Indian Law Commission, introduced (with the permission of the Secretary of State) to the Council and referred to a Select Committee in June 1881, and passed, in a somewhat mutilated condition, in February 1882. It has worked well during the last five years among the forty millions to whom it applies, and has falsified the predictions that it would give rise to litigation.

1 See Mr. Justice Innes' Digest of the English Law of Easements, 3rd ed. Pref. viii.

2 The grant of a rill in Dig. 8, 3, 37 seems an instance in Roman law of what English lawyers call a license.

Dominant and servient heritages and owners

Continuous and discontinuous, apparent and non-apparent, easements
Easement for limited time or on condition

Easements restrictive of certain rights

(a) Exclusive right to enjoy

(b) Rights to advantages arising from situation

CHAPTER II.

THE IMPOSITION, ACQUISITION AND TRANSFER OF EASEMENTS.

4

ib.

5

6

7

ib.

ib.

Extinction on expiration of limited period or happening of dissolving con

dition

Extinction on termination of necessity

Extinction of useless easement

Extinction by permanent change in dominant heritage

Extinction on permanent alteration of servient heritage by superior force 44

ACT No. V. OF 1882.

PASSED BY THE GOVERNOR GENERAL OF

INDIA IN COUNCIL.

(Received the assent of the Governor General on the 17th February,

1882.)

An Act to define and amend the law relating to
Easements and Licenses.

Preamble.

Short title.

Local extent.

Commencement. Savings.

Whereas it is expedient to define and amend the law relating to Easements and Licenses; It is hereby enacted as follows:

PRELIMINARY.

1. This Act may be called 'The Indian Easements Act, 1882:'

It extends to the territories respectively administered by the Governor of Madras in Council and the Chief Commissioners of the Central Provinces and Coorg ;

and it shall come into force on the first day of July, 1882.

2. Nothing herein contained shall be deemed to affect any law not hereby expressly repealed; or to derogate from

(a) any right of the Government to regulate the collection, retention and distribution of the water of rivers and streams flowing in natural channels, and of natural lakes and ponds1, or of the water flowing, collected, retained or distributed in or

The Act is silent as to pools (stagna), or natural collections of rainwater, sometimes dried up.