LAWS(MAD)-1968-3-37

ELLAPPA GOUNDAR Vs. GOVINDARAJA GOUNDER

Decided On March 06, 1968
Ellappa Goundar Appellant
V/S
Govindaraja Gounder Respondents

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS revision petition has been filed by the unsuccessful B party against the order of the Sub -Divisional Magistrate, Villupuram, in Miscellaneous Case No. 112 of 1966, declaring that the first respondent and the other villagers (A party) have a right to take dead bodies through the lands of the revision petitioner to the burial ground and forbidding the revision petitioner from interfering with the said right of the respondent and other villagers.

(2.) THE facts of the case are briefly these; on the report submitted by the Sub -Inspector of Police that the respondent (the revision petitioner herein) obstructed the mamool pathway running through his lands and that such obstruction was likely to lead to a breach of the peace, the Ex -officio First Class Magistrate passed a preliminary order calling upon the parties to file documents and affidavits and let in evidence to substantiate their claims. The revision petitioner filed a written statement contending that there was no mamool pathway through the land purchased by him and that no such pathway has been demarcated in the village records. He further contended that the dead bodies were being taken only along the mud road put up by the Panchayat Board. The Sub -Divisional Magistrate, Villupuram, took up enquiry. The respondent herein filed 14 affidavits and examined one Munnuswamy Gounder in Court as P. W. 1. The revision petitioner herein filed Exhibits D -l to D -4 and 29 affidavits; but he did not examine any witness. The learned Sub -Divisional Magistrate perused the affidavits filed by both the parties and ultimately found that there was a pathway in the land of the revision petitioner through which the villagers used to take the dead bodies to the burial ground and declared that the respondents have a right to take the dead bodies through the lands of the revision petitioner.

(3.) SECTION 147(1 -A), Criminal Procedure Code, is in the following terms: