VIRAMBHAI VARVABHAI Vs. VIJAY JITENDRAKUMAR SHAH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE present appeal is directed against the judgment and order dated 30th June 1982 passed by learned Judge, City Civil Court, Court No. 13, Ahmedabad in Civil Suit No. 2590 of 1979.

(2.) THE present respondent, [hereinafter referred to as the plaintiff] filed the aforesaid Civil Suit No. 2590 of 1979 against the present appellant [hereinafter referred to as the defendant] praying for possession of the suit shed and also for possession of the land of the suit shed and also for permanent prohibitory injunction restraining the defendant from tethering the cattle on the suit land and from transferring the suit land to anyone else. As per the case of the plaintiff one Manubhai Govindbhai Patel had purchased the suit bungalow by registered deed dated 21.02.1958 from Ramanlal Manilal Gandhi and others. It is the case of the plaintiff that the said Manubhai had purchased the suit bungalow as a benamidar of the original plaintiff and as such, she became the owner of the suit bungalow since then. The said Manubhai has also executed a registered deed of assignment dated 17.07.1973 declaring that he was only a benamidar of the plaintiff, and as such she became the absolute owner of the suit bungalow since then. It is the case of the plaintiff that there was a marginal land to the west of her suit bungalow and the said marginal land admeasures 10' east -west and 18' north -south. She had constructed a kachha shed without any wall, door or window on the marginal land. The shed on the land and the land in front of the shed are the subject matter of the suit filed by the plaintiff. According to the plaintiff, she allowed the defendant's father Jakshibhai to reside in the shed as her licencee out of sheer sympathy for the defendant's father. It is the case of the plaintiff that the defendant was residing in Behrampura in the land of one Jekha Maharaj and he started coming to the suit shed when his father Jakshibhai was sick. After death of Jakshibhai, the defendant started residing in the suit shed for performing obsequial ceremony of his father and thereafter the defendant continued to reside in the suit shed with the permission of the plaintiff. However, the defendant started quarelling with the plaintiff and therefore the plaintiff revoked the licence by serving a notice dated 28.05.1979. The defendant gave an evasive reply on 06.06.1979 to the notice served on him and raised a contention in the reply that his father had purchased the land. As the defendant did not comply with the requirement of the suit notice and did not hand over the possession of the suit shed and suit land, the plaintiff filed the aforesaid Civil Suit praying for actual possession of the suit shed and land.

(3.) THE defendant resisted the suit by filing written statement and denied the plaintiff's title over the suit land and suit shed, and contended that his father, Jakshibhai, had purchased the land from Manubhai for an amount of Rs.1,000/ - in the year 1958 and paid the amount of Rs.1000/ - in cash to Manubhai in the presence of witness. The defendant further contended that Manubhai had delivered actual possession of the suit land and shed to the defendant's father, and he in turn constructed the suit shed on the land and started tethering cattle on the suit land and used to store miscellaneous articles on the remaining portion of the suit land. The defendant thus contended his father was in possession of the suit shed and land since 1958. The defendant denied that his father was a licencee of the plaintiff and in the alternative he had pleaded the title of the suit land by adverse possession.