INDERDEO SINGH Vs. JANESHWAR SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a defendants' appeal arising out of a suit for declaration of title and recovery of possession with regard to 2.52 acres of land recorded in the survey in khata No. 67. One Gokul Kahar was the tenant recorded in the survey with regard to this land and, according to the plaintiffs' case, he died leaving surviving him a son named Janki and a widow named Batasia. Janki died in 1944 leaving behind a minor son named Balgovind and a widow named Chandreshrr Kaharin. The plaintiffs claim to have purchased the lands in question from Chandreshri Kaharin through a sale deed dated the 12th March 1946, which purports to have been executed by Chandreshri on her own behalf and as the guardian of her minor son. The plaintiffs' allegation is that they came in possession of the land after this purchase, but that the defendants created trouble leading to a proceeding under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code, in which the order was against the plaintiffs. Dispossession is said to have taken place after the order in the Section 144 proceeding.

(2.) The defendants who are the landlords contended that the plaintiffs had acquired no valid title to the property and that they or their alleged predecessors-in-interest had not been in possession of this land during the period of 12 years preceding the institution of the suit. The version put forward by the defendants was that Gokul did not leave any son Janki and that Musammat Batasia, the widow of Gokul, surrendered this land in their favour in Jeth 1330 Fasli corresponding to the English Calendar year 1923, that ever since the surrender they have been in possession of it.

(3.) The Court of first instance rejected the story of surrender put forward by the defendants, but it held that the plaintiffs had not been able to prove that they or their alleged vendors had been in possession of this land for a period of 12 years preceding the institution of the suit. The suit was accordingly dismissed by the learned Munsif.