JAGADEESAM PILLAI Vs. KUPPAMMAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE respondent has obtained a decree for the possession of the village of Kaduveli which is a part of the Tanjore Palace Estate. The appellant who is the tenant claims that the suit lands are situated in an estate governed by the Madras Estates Land Act and that he has occupancy rights therein and cannot be evicted. The trial Court has held that, whatever was the position before the amendment of the Madras Estates Land Act by the Madras Act, XVIII of 1936, the lands must now be deemed to be part of an estate under the Estates Land Act. It has also negatived the claim of the plaintiff that these are private lands within the definition in Section 3(10) of that Act. But it has held that the defendant is not entitled to resist the plaintiff's claim for possession because the occupancy right in these lands is held not by the defendant but by a previous tenant. In appeal it is contended that this finding regarding the subsistence of the occupancy right of the previous tenant is erroneous; but the respondent contends that even granting so much, the appellant must fail because the lower court erred in holding that the lands in suit are not private land.

(2.) IN order to understand the question arising in this suit it is necessary to summarise very briefly the history of the Tanjore Palace Estate. In 1799 the then Raja of Tanjore by treaty ceded to the East India Company the right to collect revenue of the lands in the Tanjore Country and to administer justice therein. The Raja retained control over the Fort of Tanjore and was also permitted to retain certain villages and lands and palaces. This state of affairs continued up to the death of the last Raja in 1855. On his death, there being no heir, the Court of Directors of the East India Company decided that the title of Raja had become extinct and the whole of his propety including some 190 villages lapsed to the East India Company. Accordingly in October, 1856, Mr. H. Forbes appointed for the purpose, took possession of the entire estate.

(3.) IN 1866 litigation commenced between the Ranees and a receiver was appointed by the Court. The whole of the villages belonging to the Tanjore Palace Estate remained in the possession of receivers from 1866 down to 1912 when the last receiver filed an inter -pleader suit, O.S. No. 26 of 1912 on the file of the Subordinate Judge of Tanjore, which subsequently became O.S. No. 3 of 1919 on the file of the District Court of Tanjore. That suit resulted in the allotment of the village of Kaduveli to the 28th defendant in that suit Subhanandaji Bhonsle Saheb; but the properties were subject to a charge and in execution of the decree for the charge the properties were brought to sale and purchased by the present plaintiff in Court auction on the 2nd September, 1940. The plaintiff therefore claims title as the successor of one of the heirs of the grantees to whom the estate was restored by the Government of India.