JAMATH MOSQUE Vs. JOSEPH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE are two revision petitions by the Jamath Mosque of Kochangadi and the orders sought to be vacated are the orders of the learned temporary Additional District Judge of Anjikaimal in M. P. Nos. 561 and 576 of 1952. M. P. No. 561 of 1952 relates to A. S. 214 of 1123 and M. P. 576 of 1952 to a. S. No. 216 of 1123. The prayer in both the petitions was for a posting of the concerned appeals for hearing and disposal.

(2.) THE appeals arise from O. S. 270 of 1121, a suit filed by the petitioner before the court of the District Munsiff, Cochin. THE decretal portion of the judgment reads as follows: "in the result the plaintiff mosque is given a decree for surrender the plaint schedule properties with arrears of rent as claimed in the plaint as also future pattom as per the provisions of the verumpattomdars Act. Plaintiffs are also entitled to Rs. 58-8-0 as damages for waste. Plaintiffs will deposit Rs. 935-0-8 due to the 3rd defendant, Rs. 22-3-0 due to the 4th defendant and Rs. 804-14-4 due to the 5th defendant as value of their respective improvements. Personal relief is allowed only for arrears in respect of the last 6 years. Set off is allowed between the plaintiffs and defendants 3 and 4. THE plaintiff will get their costs from the 3rd and 4th defendants. Defendants will bear their costs. Plaintiffs and defendants 3 and 4 will share the commission batta in equal proportions. Plaintiffs will pay 3rd defendant the amounts covered by Ext. III series".

(3.) IT is admitted by the Mosque that the lease involved in A. S. Nos. 214 and 216 of 1123 is a verumpattom lease of lands situate outside the limits of the Municipalities constituted under the Cochin Municipal Act, XVIII of 1113, and hence coming within the ambit of the Cochin Verumpattomdars Act, VIII of 1118. That Act conferred fixity of tenure on verumpattom tenants and the grounds on which eviction was possible after that Act came into force was only on any one of the six grounds enumerated in S. 8 of that enactment viz. , " (a) that he has willfully denied the title of the jenmi or of any intermediate landlord between himself and the jenmi before the date of such suit; (b) that he has intentionally and willfully committed such acts of waste as are calculated to impair materially and permanently the value or utility of the holding; (c) that he has not paid the pattom due in respect of the holding or the revenue, cess, tax or special charges, if any, specified in S. 6; (d) that he has not paid within six months from the commencement of this act the entire arrears of pattom, if any, due in respect of the holding at the commencement of this Act; (e) that he has intentionally or otherwise allowed a stranger to encroach on the holding or part thereof adversely to the interests of the jenmi or any intermediate landlord between himself and the jenmi; (f) that at the end of the agricultural year the jenmi or any intermediate landlord requires the holding or part thereof, except the kudiyiruppu bona fide for building residential quarters for the use of himself or for any member of his family or tarwad or thavazhi who has a beneficial or proprietory interest therein".