RAMAIAH Vs. GODAPPA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) 1. This petition has come before us on a refeience made by the learned Single Judge to consider the following questions of law :

(2.) Petitioners were defendants and the respondents were plaintiffs in the trial Court. For the sake of convenience the parties will be referred to by their status In the Court below.

(3.) The brief facts, leading to this reference are as follows : The plaintiffs filed a suit in O.S. No. 19 of 1980 on the file of the Civil Judge at Chikkaballapur, claiming partition and separate possession of their two-thirds share in the plaint schedule properties which are alleged to be the joint family properties of the plaintiffs and the defendants. In the said suit, the defendants filed an interlocutory application (I A V), seeking temporary injunction to restrain the plaintiffs from interfering with their possession of certain items of the plaint schedule properties, which according to the defendants had fallen to their share in an earlier partition of the family properties in the year 1953 and that they were in exclusive possession of the same since then. It is further pleaded that taking advantage of the suit the plaintiffs were attempting to interfere with their (defendants') possession and enjoyment of the said properties.