Section 0

An Act to give better effect to certain agreements with the Thákur of Bhaunagar. WHEREAS the villages mentioned in the Schedule Preamble, hereto annexed (hereinafter called the Scheduled villages) are the property of the Thákur of Bhaunagar, and were by the Treaty of Bassein dated the thirty-first day of December 1802, separated from the Native State or States known as the territory of Káthiáwár and ceded to the British Government: And whereas, by Regulation VI of 1816 of the Governor of Bombay in Council, the Regulations in force throughout the Presidency of Bombay were extended to the said villages, and such villages thereby became subject to the jurisdiction of the Revenue, Civil and Criminal Courts established in that Presidency: And whereas the said Thákur of Bhaunagar is also the proprietor of divers villages, forming part of the said territory, and hereinafter called the Káthiáwár villages: And whereas the British Government have exercised certain powers of government over the said territory, but such territory has never been treated as being British territory, nor as having been vested in the East India Company, nor in Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland and Empress of India, and the said Káthiáwár villages have consequently never been subject to the laws in force in the Presidency of Bombay: And [Price two annas.] Bhaunagar. [ACT XX And whereas in the year 1820 the British Government established a Political Agency for the said territory of Káthiáwár: And whereas in the year 1857 the said Thákur was, by an order of the British Government, invested in respect of the same villages with certain powers of sovereignty limited by and subject to the rules laid down for the government and conduct of the said Káthiáwár Political Agency: And whereas for divers reasons of State affecting the welfare of British India, the British Government became desirous of ceding to the Thákur of Bhaunagar the Scheduled villages, to be held by him on the same conditions as those on which he holds the Káthiáwár villages, and for that purpose certain agreements were made and certain notifications published which were intended to operate as a cession of the Scheduled villages: And whereas on the twenty-ninth day of January 1866, the Governor of Bombay in Council published a notification declaring that, in accordance with the agreement last hereinbefore recited, the Scheduled villages were from and after the first day of February 1866 removed from the jurisdiction of the Revenue, Civil and Criminal Courts of the Bombay Presidency and transferred to the supervision of the said Political Agency in Káthiáwár on the same conditions as to jurisdiction as the said Káthiáwár villages: And whereas the intention of the said agreements and notifications was that the villages comprised therein should be ceded to and vested in the Thákur of Bhaunagar, to be held by him on the terms on which he holds the Káthiáwár villages: And whereas ever since the first day of February 1866, the Scheduled villages have been governed according to the intention of the said agreements, and acts of executive authority have been done, proceedings taken and decrees and sentences passed by the Thákur of Bhaunagar and his officers, and by the officers