GURUSIDDIAH CHANDRASHEKHARAIAH Vs. LAND TRIBUNAL BAGALKOT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this petition, under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner who is the owner of the land bearing Survey No. 395 measuring 3 acres 25 guntas of Bagalkot village, Bija,pur District, has challenged the order passed by the Land Tribunal, Bagalkot, in KLRT SR 469 dated 8-2-1977 granting the occupancy right in favour of the 2nd respondent.

(2.) The case of the 2nd respondent was that she became the tenant of the land in question under a registered lease deed dated 23-12-1966 on a rent of Rs.200/- per year and the lease deed executed was for a period of 5 years and thereafter, she continued to remain in possession and cultivated the same personally as a tenant and that she has not been dispossessed from the land in question in accordance with law even after the expiry of the period mentioned in the aforesaid deed. On the contrary the contention, of the petitioner was that the land was not leased to the petitioner, but she was only the mortgagee in possession as the land wag given to her on Undubiduva Kararu. Accordingly, it was contended that the 2nd respondent did not become the tenant of the land in question; hence she was not entitled to be registered as an occupant of the land in question. The Tribunal on consideration of the aforesaid deed produced before it, and also on the basis of the statement made by the parties, came to the conclusion that the deed in question was a lease deed and the 2nd respondent was cultivating the land in question as tenant and accordingly granted the occupancy right in favour of the 2nd respondent.

(3.) Shri B. V. Krishnaswamy Rap, the learned Counsel appearing for the petitioner, contended that the interpretation placed by the Tribunal that the deed-Exhibit-B is a lease deed, is not correct and he further contended that the deed in question is one of mortgage inasmuch as the land was given on undubiduva Kararu; therefore, no tenancy was created by the petitioner. Hence, the order of the Tribunal is unsustainable.