- (1.) Present writ petition under Art.226 of the Constitution of India is directed against the judgement and order dated 9th June 1980 passed by Board of Revenue, the respondent No. 1 in second Appeal No. 221 of 1973-74 (Raghunath v. Samiullah and others) allowing the appeal filed by the defendant, the respondents 2 and 3 and dismissing the suit filed by the present petitioners under S.202 of U.P.Z.A. and L.R. Act 1950 (for short the Act) for the ejectment of the defendants the respondents 2 and 3 from an area of 1 bigha and 8 biswa of plot No. 548 situate in village Kanihar, Pargana Jhunsi, Distt. Allahabad.
(2.) This case has a chequered history. Present petitioners had filed a civil suit numbered 16 of 1954 for declaration that the land in dispute was ancestral grove of the plaintiffs and they were the grove holders or bhumidhars of plot No. 548 and the defendant Raghunath, father of respondents 2 and 3 has no concern with it. He was appointed to look after the grove in dispute a few years prior to the institution of the suit but he managed to get his name entered in revenue papers without knowledge of the plaintiffs and threatened to dispossess the plaintiffs hence necessity for the suit.
(3.) The defendant, respondents 2 and 3 contested the suit and alleged that earlier there was grove but later on it ceased to remain grove as there were only 8 trees which were on the boundaries of the plot and the land became cultivable, was let out to Raghunath, the father of the respondents 2 and 3 on payment of Rs. 6/- as rent and for the last more than 12 years the defendant had been in cultivatory possession of the disputed land. In any case the defendant being recorded as "occupant", acquired rights of Adhiwasi under S.20(b) of the Act and the suit was barred by time.;