RAM LAL Vs. MUSHTAQ ALI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a plaintiff's appeal and arises out of a suit for ejectment filed in the revenue Court under Section 58(a), Agra Tenancy Act, on the allegation that the defendant was holding the land in dispute as a tenant from year to year, The defence to the suit was that the relation of landholder and tenant did not subsist between the parties, and that the defendant was in possession of the plots in dispute as a mortgagee.

(2.) The learned Assistant Collector held that the relation of landholder and tenant did not exist between the parties, and that the land in dispute was held by the defendant as his khudkasht, and on these findings dismissed the plaintiff's suit on the 15 June 1922.

(3.) The plaintiff filed an appeal against the decree of the Assistant Collector in the Court of the Commissioner on the 12 August 1922. The learned Commissioner held that, as a question of proprietary title was in issue in the Court of first instance and was in issue in the appeal, the appeal should have been filed in the Court of the District Judge, and accordingly the memorandum of appeal was returned to the plaintiff-appellant, on the 5 November 1923, for presentation to the proper Court. The memorandum of appeal was then presented in the Court of the District Judge, on the 6 November 1923. It was accompanied by an application for extension of time under Section 5 of the Limitation Act, and the application was supported by an affidavit, in which it was stated that the appeal had been filed in the Court of the Commissioner because of the advice given to the plaintiff-appellant by Babu Lal Bahadur, mukhtar. The learned District Judge has rejected the application for extension of time, and has dismissed the appeal as time barred.