A proprietor, an owner, a lord, a cultivator possessing hereditary rights, also a landlord, a Zamindar. A master, an owner, a proprietor, a cultivator possessing a hereditary or proprietary right in the land he cultivates, or a person having a beneficial and hereditary interest in the revenue paid by the cultivators, and responsible to the Government for its share. [P Ramanatha Aiyer’s The Law Lexicon]

An owner possessed of full proprietary rights including a full right of alienation. [49 IA 25; AIR 1922 PC 63]

A Malik means a proprietor. But, we further hold that a malik is not necessarily a rent-receiver unless he is actually a receiver of rent as mentioned by us above. Therefore, it cannot be said that, just because a transferor is a malik in respect of a part of the transferred land, he is a rent-receiver. [18 DLR (1966) 666]

“The main object of the State Acquisition Act 1950 was to eliminate all kinds of rent-receiving interests and make the Government the sole landlord and create only one kind of tenants, who would be styled as “maliks”. [30 DLR (SC) (1978) 164]