BIPRADAS PAL CHOWDHURY Vs. KAMINI KUMAR LAHIRI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE plaintiff in the Courts below, now represented by the present appellants, was the purchaser at a public auction of the patni taluk Taraf Santipur, the property having been put up to sale in execution of a decree for rent. When he came to take possession he found that in thirty-eight villages, the tenants, with some small exception, set up a claim to hold their lands as revenue free or as lakhiraj. He accordingly served notices under Section 167 of the Bengal Tenancy Act of 1885 upon 103 occupiers, treating the interests which they claimed as incumbrances upon his purchase, which he had power under the various sections of the Act to avoid or annul. As they persisted in their claims he instituted in the Court of the Munsif, 103 suits which. were heard together.

(2.) DURING the somewhat protracted litigation which followed, fifteen of these suits were disposed of, and do not now come before their Lordships. The remaining eighty-eight are the subject of the first appeal, and there is a further batch of appeals represented in the second consolidated appeal also before their Lordships. The principles governing all these cases are the same, and the decision in one would cover the rest.

(3.) THE defences in general form were that no zamindar, patnidar or darpatnidar had been in possession of the land within twelve years, and the claims therefore were barred by limitation; that the lands never were mal lands; that they had in fact been registered as lakhiraj; and certain other objections not material to be discussed in the present judgment.