Nishita Mhatre, J. - (1.) THE Municipality of Katwa through its board of Councillors has filed the present appeal against the decision of the Civil Judge, Senior Division, Katwa, Burdwan in Title Suit No. 30 of 1991, a suit for partition which was filed by the original Respondent No. 1. The Trial Court has decreed the suit with costs. It has declared that the Plaintiff's share in the suit property is 17 decimals and that the appellant, i.e., the Defendant No. 2, was entitled to 8 decimals whereas the Defendants No. 3 and 4 were entitled to 17 decimals and the Defendant No. 5 was entitled to 1 decimal in the suit property. As the suit property was required to be partitioned by metes and bounds, the Trial Court passed the preliminary decree and directed that a Commissioner be appointed for partitioning the same on the basis of the preliminary decree. The Commissioner was directed to assess the valuation of the excess share in possession of the defendants which is to be delivered to the Plaintiff.
(2.) THE suit plot No. 613 measuring 43 decimals was originally owned by one Bholanath Das. He transferred 8 decimals from this undivided land to the Town Hall as well as the Katwa Municipality by a registered Sale Deed. Later, he transferred the remaining 35 decimals of undivided land to the Plaintiff by virtue of a registered Sale Deed, dated 7th June, 1958. The Plaintiff then transferred 17 decimals of land, which she owned, to Defendant No. 3 by a registered Deed of Gift dated 19th April, 1961. The Defendant No. 4 acquired a portion of the suit land from the Defendant No. 3. Defendants No. 3 and 4 are Co -operative Societies. The Plaintiff later transferred 1 decimal of undivided land to the Defendant No. 5 by a registered Deed of Gift. The land was never partitioned amongst the co -sharers, which included both the Katwa Municipality and the Plaintiff. The Plaintiff/Respondent No. 1 claimed that the Defendants in collusion with each other were trying to raise a construction which encroached upon her land. As the Defendants refused to partition the suit property by metes and bounds, the Plaintiff/Respondent No. 1 was left with no other alternative but to file a suit for partition before the Trial Court. Defendant No. 2, i.e. the Katwa Municipality (the Appellant herein), pleaded in its written statement that its share in the suit plot was 11 decimals, out of which a municipal road was constructed over half a decimal. The Municipality further pleaded that the remaining ten -and -half decimals of land were covered by buildings namely an auditorium - Nazrul Mancha and a shopping centre.
(3.) THE Defendants No. 3 and 4 filed a joint written statement and contended that they were in possession of a well demarcated area measuring 1.13 decimals. The Defendant No. 4 had raised a two -storied building of the Katwa Sub -Division Library over this 'Kha' Scheduled property.;