GONDUMOGULA TATAYYA Vs. PENUMATCHA ANANDE VIJAYA TIMMA JAGAPATHIRAJU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These are fifteen appeals by special leave. They have been heard together as they raise common questions of law and fact and this judgment will govern them all.

(2.) These appeals arise out of fifteen suits filed by certain inamdars (respondents herein) of a village called Goteru for ejecting the tenants, who are the appellants before us, from various holdings in their possession after the expiry of the period of their leases and for other reliefs, such as, arrears of rent and damages. The lands lie in village Goteru, one of the villages in the Nuzvid zamindari. Goteru, Komaravaram and Surampudi are three Mokhasa villages in the said zamindari. It was admitted that the Mokhasas were included in the assets of the zamindari at the time of the permanent settlement in 1802. The case of the inamdars respondents was that in eight of the suits the land was a Karnam service inam and in seven suits the land was a Sarvadumbala inam. These inam lands were pre-settlement inams and were enfranchised by the Government on the basis that they were excluded from the assets of the zamindari at the time of the permanent settlement and separate title deeds were subsequently issued to the inamdars. According to the inamdars these inam lands were not "estates" within the meaning of S. 3(2) of the Madras Estates Land Act, 1908 (Madras Act I of 1908) and the inamdars were entitled to both Melvaram and Kudivaram therein, the respondents leased out these lands to the appellants for a fixed period under an express contract with the appellants, who were the lessees concerned, that they would quit and deliver possession at the end of their lease periods; the appellants, however, did not vacate the lands, but continued to be in possession:Twelve acres and 52 cents of the suit lands were Karnam service inam and the rest Sarvadumbala inam.

(3.) The appellants contended inter alia that the suit lands formed part of the Mokhasa of village Goteru and were included in the assets of the zamindari at the time of the permanent settlement, that the inams were part of an estate and the appellants had acquired rights of occupancy in the lands in suit under the provisions of the Madras Estates Land Act. They also raised certain other pleas with which we are not now concerned. The main defence of the appellants was that they had got permanent occupancy rights in the suit lands and, therefore, they were not liable to be ejected and the Civil Court had no jurisdiction to try the suits.