SATYENDER Vs. SAROJ

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal is against judgment dtd. 19/7/2017 of the High Court of Punjab & Haryana given in a Second Appeal (No. 140 of 2009) which was partly allowed by the High Court.

(2.) The case arises out of the proceedings initiated by the plaintiffs (respondents herein) for declaration and possession on an agricultural land. Suit was filed by the plaintiffs, claiming to be owners of the property, which in total measured 80 Kanals, 19 Marlas. The property is in the revenue village Gagarwas, Tehsil Loharu, District Bhiwani (Haryana). Their case was that defendant No. 2 was their tenant who had sub-let the land to his son (defendant No.1), without the consent of the plaintiffs/landlords and hence, the two defendants were liable to be evicted and the possession of the land was to be handed over to the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs additionally had built their case on an assertion that the land was earlier in possession of one Ram Kaur on which Ganpat Rai, the father of defendant No. 2 was the tenant. Ganpat Rai surrendered his tenancy of the disputed land to Ram Kaur in the year 1976. Later in the year 1994, the plaintiffs had won a suit against Ms. Ram Kaur and the land which is the subject matter of the present dispute now belongs to them, hence they have stepped into the shoes of Ms. Ram Kaur and are now the owners of the property.

(3.) Defendant No. 1 (Satyender) is the son of defendant No.2 (Ishwar Singh). The stand taken by defendant No.1 was that he had no concern with the land in question. The defence set up by him was that he was born in the year 1966 and hence, he was only twelve years of age in the year 1978 when the sub-tenancy is alleged to have been created in his favour, as per the revenue records. He never cultivated the land and the cultivation was done by his father and his two uncles, and the entries made in the revenue record showing him to be a tenant or a sub-tenant are wrong and have been made by the plaintiffs, in collusion with the revenue officials.