ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER TUMKUR Vs. K N NAGARAJA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Appellants 1 to 3 herein were defendants 1, 3 and 4 respectively in O.S. No.554 of 1968 on the file of the Additional Munsiff, Tumkur. The respondent herein had filed that suit for a declaration of his title in respect of a well (fully described in the plaint) and for a permanent injunction against these appellants restraining them from interfering with his possession and enjoyment of the said well.

(2.) The plaintiff's case was that the well is situated in Sy. No. 3/3 of Village Devarayanadurga of which he is the owner; that the well exclusively belongs to him; that the defendants have absolutely no manner of right, title or interest over the same and that at the instance of these appellants the second defendant in the suit was making preparations to put up a pump-house in order to install a pumpset in the well. The contention of these appellants was that the well is not of the exclusive ownership of the plaintiff as claimed by him, that it is a well in the use of the public and the public have the right to draw water from this well for the use of the public in Devarayanadurga village proper; that the Government has prepared a scheme under which a pumpset has to be installed in the well and therefore they had entrusted the second defendant, contractor, with that work. The second defendant in the suit remained ex parte. In view of these rival contentions, the Munsiff had framed as many as 9 issues, of which the relevant ones are: issues 1 and 4, the former being as to whether the plaintiff was the owner of the well in question and the latter was to whether the public have a right to draw water from the well as contended by the contesting defendants in the suit. On the first issue the finding was in favour of the plaintiff and on the second against the defendants. In the result, he decreed the suit as prayed for with costs.

(3.) These appellants challenged that judgment and decree in R.A. No. 137 of 1971 on the file of the Prl. Civil Judge, Tumkur. The learned Civil Judge, by his judgment dated 30-9-1974 in R.A. No. 137 of 1971 on his file dismissed the appeal thereby confirming the judgment and decree of the trial court.