RAJENDER SINGH Vs. SANTA SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The plaintiffs-appellants, before us by grant of special leave, had filed a suit on 20-4-l959 far possession against Me defendants respondents, of 331 Canals and 11 Marlas of land the Khasra numbers of which are given in the plaint. The plaintiffs were the sons of Smt. Premi a daughter of Sham Singh (deceased), the original owner at the plots, and of Smt. Malan, who, as the widow of Sham Singh, had gifted the plots in dispute 1935, half and half, to the plaintiffs and Sent. Khemi, the younger sister of their deceased mother, Smt. Premi. It appears that Smt. Khemi, who was issueless, had also made a gift in favour of the plaintiffs before her death in 1944. The plaintiffs are said to have obtained possession of the whole land in dispute thus gifted to them. But, as there was considerable uncertainty at that time about the rights of the daughters and the powers of a widow to donate during her life time under the customary law in Punjab, which was applicable to the parties, the defendants-respondents, the 8th degree collaterals of Sham Sink, had filed a suit on 3-7-1940 for possession of the land in dispute. This suit had been stayed from 1941 to 29-5-1946, under the Indian Soldiers (Litigation) Act, 1925, to the benefits of which the plaintiffs were entitled. It appears that there was also a dispute over mutation of names between the plaintiffs and defendants-respondents in revenue courts which ended finally by an order in favour of the appellants donees passed by the Financial Commissioner of Punjab on 13-12-1946. Defendants-Respondents, suit of 1940, for declaration of rights and possession, renumbered in 1949, ended with the judgment and decree of a Division Bench of the Punjab High Court passed in favour of the appellants on 21-11-1958.

(2.) The plaintiffs asserted, in their suit No. 179 of 1959, filed on 16-4-1959, now before us in appeal, that the defendants-respondents had taken illegal and forcible possession of the land in dispute after the decision of the High Court on 21-11-1958, and that, as the defendants-respondents refused to deliver possession of the land to the plaintiffs, they were compelled to file their suit for possession. The defendants-respondents, however, claimed that they had taken possession over the whole of the land in dispute after the death of Smt. Khemi, issueless, in 1944, and that, since then, they had been in open, continuous, exclusive possession as owners, adversely to the rest of the world. Hence, according to the defendants-respondents, the plaintiffs' suit was barred by limitation.

(3.) There cannot be the least 'doubt, after looking at the plaint, that the plaintiffs-appellants, having alleged possession and dispossession, for which they claimed relief by delivery back of possession of the land in dispute to them, the case fell squarely within the ambit of Art. 142 of the Limitation Act of 1908. The defendants-respondents had, however, pleaded the bar of limitation as well as acquisition of title by their adverse possession for over 12 years.