(1.) ONE Salih Sahib, whom I shall hereafter refer to as the plaintiff, filed a suit against one Adam Sahib, whom I shall call the defendant, in the District Munsif court, Chingleput, in the following circumstances. The plaintiff is the owner of a piece of land bearing S. No. 21 of an extent of 4 acres and 60 cents in Panaiyur village, Madurantakam taluk. Hereafter I shall refer to this land as the suit land. The defendant owns the land bearing S. No. 20. This land lies immediately to the north of the suit land. A ridge had always separated, and still separates, the two lands, S. No. 21 and S. No. 20. The plaintiff sued the defendant, complaining that on 2-7-1971, the defendant high-handedly trespassed on the ridge. According to the averment in the plaint the defendant's trespass consisted in simply reducing the width of the ridge. The original width of the ridge, it was stated, was 1 1/2 ft. The complaint was that this was reduced by the defendant to 1/2 ft. The plaintiff claimed that he was entitled to a ridge with a width of 1 1/2ft. The suit was accordingly filed for the grant of a mandatory injunction directing the defendant to restore the ridge to its original condition with a width of 1 1/2 ft. and for ancillary reliefs. The plaint contained a schedule describing the ridge.
(2.) THE suit was filed on 4-7-1971. Subsequently, in I. A. 216 of 1973, an advocate-Commissioner was appointed by the learned District Munsif to go into the exact portion of the ridge. The Commissioner inspected the suit land, the defendant's land the ridge lying in between. He procured the assistance of a qualified Surveyor for taking measurements. He filed more than one report before the court. In his second report, the Commissioner, inter alia, observed that there were indications of an alternation in the situation of the ridge from its original position.
(3.) ON the basis of what the Commissioner stated in his report, the plaintiff filed i. A. 101 of 1974 under O. 6, R. 17, C. P. C. for permitting the petitioner to amend the plaint by adding one more prayer in the suit, namely, a prayer for possession of a strip of land of a width of 3 links and a length of 1728 links along the northern border of S. No. 21. Consequential amendments were also desired to be introduced in the schedule attached to the plaint.