DISTRICT BOARD SALEM Vs. S K HANUMANTHA RAO

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This revision arises out of a suit instituted by the District Board, Salem, for recovery of a sum of Rs. 135 being the value of a tamarind tree cut and carried away by the defendants. The claim made in the plaint was that the tree in question stood on a public street which had vested in the District Board and it, therefore, belonged to them. Defendants 1 and 3 pleaded that the tree stood on their patta lands and that it belonged to them; that even if it stood on the public street the Government and not the. District Board was the owner thereof and that, therefore, the plaintiff had no right of action. The learned District Munsif held that the tree stood not on the patta lands of defendants 1 and 3 but on a public street which had vested in the District Board. He also held that the tree was an ancient one and was in existence before the highway vested in the District Board, that there was no proof as to who planted it, that it must, therefore, be taken to he of spontaneous growth and that the vesting of the highway in the District Board in 1930 had not the effect of vesting the tree in the Board and that, therefore, the Government and not the Board was the owner thereof. The District Munsif further "held that while on the one hand the defendants had failed to establish title to the tree by adverse possession the plaintiff had also failed to establish actual possession thereof. In the result he dismissed the suit. Against this decision the District Board prefers the present revision and contends that the finding of the lower Court both on the question of title and of possession is erroneous.

(2.) On the question of title Mr. S. Ramachandra Aiyar, the learned advocate for the petitioner argned that on a true construction of the relevant provisions of the Madras Local Boards Act, (Act 14 of 1920) what vested in the District Board was not merely the public road but also the trees standing thereon. Section 60 provides that all public roads in any district shall vest in the district board and Section 3 Sub-clause (18) defines a public road as including

(3.) Whatever one might think of it if the matter were res integra', it is so far concluded by authority that it could no longer be said to be open to argument The question has been considered England in a number of cases arising under Section 149, Public Health Act. In -- 'Coverdale v. Chartton', (1879) 4 Q. B. D. 104 (A) the point for decision. was whether the local authority was entitled to lease a right of pasturage over grass growing on public streets. The larger contention in support of the right to lease was that the vesting of the street carried with it full ownership of the land. In rejecting this contention, Bramwell L. J. observed,