HELAVAMMA; B JAYASHANKAR; SRINIVASA Vs. H M SIDDEGOWDA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Aggrieved by the concurrent findings recorded by both the Courts below in decreeing the suit for declaration of ownership and permanent injunction, the defendants have filed this Regular Second Appeal.

(2.) The parties are referred to as they are referred to before the Trial Court.

(3.) The case of the plaintiff is that the suit schedule property originally belonged to H.K.Bundaiah, the husband of the first defendant and father of defendants 2 and 3. The said H.K.Bundaiah sold the schedule land in favour of one Marigowda, the father of the plaintiff under a registered Sale Deed dated 05.07.1974 and put him in possession of the same. Since then, the purchaser Marigowda continued in possession of the schedule land and after his death, the plaintiff is continuing in possession and enjoyment of the schedule land. The vendor H.K.Bundaiah died about 10 years ago and the defendants are his legal representatives. When the facts stood thus, the plaintiff came to know in the year 1997 that khatha of the land purchased by his father was not mutated in the name of the plaintiff and then he applied for registering his name as khathedar on the basis of the registered Sale Deed. The Deputy Tahsildar registered a dispute and conducted an enquiry as contemplated under the Karnataka Land Revenue Act and Rules and declined to register the name of the plaintiff as khatedar, solely on the ground that khatha has already been registered in the name of the vendor and the remedy available to the plaintiff was to prefer an appeal before the Assistant Commissioner. The plaintiff filed an application for change of khatha after a lapse of about 10 to 11 years. The defendants, after the order of the Deputy Tahsildar, dated 15.05.1998 started to deny the right of the plaintiff over the suit schedule property. Hence, the instant suit was filed seeking for a declaration that the plaintiff is the absolute owner and in possession of the suit schedule land and for the relief of perpetual injunction restraining the defendants from interfering with the plaintiff's peaceful possession and enjoyment of the suit schedule property.