- (1.)This is an appeal from the decision of the learned District Judge of the Assam Valley Districts reversing the decision of the Munsif of Gauhati. The facts may be briefly summarised. The plaintiffs case was that the land in suit belonged to one Behia who is described as a paik of Umanand temple. The land was submerged after the great earthquake of 1897 and the plaintiffs say that Bahia left the village in 1900 and thereafter, in 1915, conveyed the disputed plot to their father. Four years later they were dispossessed by the defendants.
(2.)The defendants, on the other hand, pleaded that Behia had abandoned the land after the earthquake and that the dolai of the temple settled it with them in 1303 B.S., corresponding to 1905, and granted them a pottah on the 22nd February, 1912.
(3.)The learned Munsif was of opinion that the plaintiffs had proved their possession in the land transferred to them and their subsequent dispossession by the defendants while the defendants had failed to establish Behia's relinquishment. His title, therefore, still subsisted and he was competent to transfer it to the plaintiffs who were thus entitled to succeed.