SHANKAR BHATT Vs. STATE OF KARNATAKA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal filed by the plaintiff of O.S. No.112/2001 under Section 96 challenging the judgment and decree passed on 24.08.2006 by the learned First Additional Senior Civil Judge, Badami. Suit of the plaintiffs for the relief of declaration of title and permanent injunction has been dismissed by considered judgment dated 24.08.2006. Respondents herein are the defendant nos.1 to 7 in the trial Court. Parties will be referred to as the plaintiff and defendants as per their ranking given in the trial Court.

(2.) Property over which the main relief of declaration of title has been sought by the plaintiff is an agricultural land measuring 3.08 acres in sy. No. 161 of Cholachagudd village of Badami Taluk, Bagalkot District. According to the plaintiff, property in question is stated to be the ancestral property of plaintiff and defendant nos.2 to 7 and is situated in the vicinity of Banashankari Temple of Cholachagudd village of Badami Taluk. Every year a fair will be held during the period "Yellu Amavasya". Normally jatra will be held during January or February according to the English calendar. According to the plaintiff though the property in question is an agricultural land, the same is being used for non-agricultural purposes at the time of said jatra as thousands of devotees assemble around the temple. During the period of jatra temporary sheds will be installed by businessmen and in this regard plaintiff and defendant nos.2 to 7 have been seeking permission from the revenue department to use the same for non-agricultural purposes during the said period of jatra. It is their assertion that the land in question has never been an Inam land but a land owned by themselves and their ancestors from days immemorial. Since the name of the Government came to be entered in the revenue records vide Mutation Entry No. 2054 dated 11.11.1978 an application was filed for deleting the same. The application was dismissed holding that the land in question is an inam land. Against the said order, a writ petition was filed in W.P. No. 17789/1997 before this Court and the same was allowed. Against the said order in the Writ Petition, the Panchayath chose to file an appeal before the High Court in W.A. No. 7156/1999 and the said writ appeal was disposed of giving liberty to the plaintiff to agitate his claim to establish his ownership by filing a suit before the competent Civil Court. Accordingly, plaintiff chose to file a regular civil suit seeking the main relief of declaration of title to the effect that plaintiff and defendant nos. 2 to 7 are the absolute owners and that they are in lawful possession of the same. hence the ancillary relief of permanent injunction has also been sought.

(3.) The first defendant alone resisted the suit on various grounds. The main plea of the first defendant is that the land in question is an Inam land coming within the purview of Karnataka Certain Inam Abolition Act, 1977 and that Mutation Entry has been lawfully made by the revenue authorities and that the same is a valid entry. According to the first defendant, the land in question has vested in the Government on coming into force of Karnataka Certain Inam Abolition Act, 1977 and that plaintiff has not filed any application seeking occupancy right, before the Land Tribunal and therefore the suit itself is not maintainable either in law or on facts. It is further averred that the suit is specifically barred by time in view of mutation entry dated 11.11.1978 has been challenged at highly belated stage, i.e., on 21.04.2001. With these pleadings the first defendant had requested the trial Court to dismiss the suit.