Chandrasekhara Aiyar, J - (1.)These two civil miscellaneous appeals and eight civil revision petitions are connected. I shall deal with the revision petitions first as all of them raise the same point.
(2.)The mokhasadars of Chilakapadu and Muppavaram filed suits in the District Munsiff's Court of Tanuku against their tenants for the recovery of rent and for ejectment. The tenants pleaded that they had occupancy rights in the lands as they form part of an "estate " within the meaning of the Estates Land Act and that the Civil Courts had no jurisdiction. This plea was upheld by the District MunsifF who directed the plaints to be returned for presentation to the proper Court. On appeals preferred by the mokhasadars, the Subordinate Judge of Ellore, reached the same conclusion and confirmed the decrees of the District Munsiff. These revision petitions are from the decision of the Subordinate Judge and raise the question whether the lands form part of an estate in which the defendants have occupancy rights. It was contended for the petitioners that the lands were not part of an estate for two reasons : firstly, because Clause (d) of Section 3(2) of the Estates Land Act will not apply as there is nothing to show that the grant was of an entire village and secondly, that Clause (e) of Section 3(2) is not applicable, as the grant was only of specific lands in the villages and not of one or more villages of any of the estates specified in Clauses (a), (b) and (c):
(3.)The first ground has ceased to be available to the petitioners because of the new Madras Act II of 1945 which enacts that " where a grant as an in am is expressed to be of a named village, the area which forms the subject-matter of the grant shall be deemed to be an estate notwithstanding that it did not include certain lands in the village of that name which have already been granted on service or other tenure or been reserved for communal purposes." Therefore even in a case where we find that certain lands in a named village were not included in the grant for some reasons, the land granted as in am would still be an estate.