MANGAL CHAND NAGALLIA Vs. DISTRICT JUDGE DEORIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This petition is directed against concurrent orders passed by the courts below disposing of a preliminary objection raised on behalf of the Petitioner -who is the Defendant in the civil suit filed against him as to the jurisdiction of the court to try the suit. Both the courts below have held, overruling the objection of the Petitioner, that the suit was rightly taken cognizance of by the learned Judge, Small Causes Court.

(2.) The relevant facts are that a suit has been filed against the Petitioner by the Plaintiff -Respondents Nos. 3 and 4 for the Petitioner's ejectment on the assertion that the disputed accommodation belonged to one Smt. Kamrunnissa and that the Plaintiff has got the same under a deed of transfer executed in his favour on 8 -6 -79. The Defendant was a tenant of Smt. Kamrunnissa. After the transfer of the property in favour of the Plaintiff, the Plaintiff served a notice informing the Defendant of the transfer. The Defendant in reply to that notice asserted that one Maqbool was his landlord. The Plaintiff thereafter served a notice determining the tenancy of the Defendant and asking him to vacate the disputed accommodation, inter alia, on the ground that the Defendant has denied the title of the Plaintiff and thereby incurred forfeiture of the lease.

(3.) The Petitioner filed a written statement and asserted that he was the tenant of one Maqbool to whom he has been paying rent since 1974. Earlier the property belonged to one Nurul Hasan from whom the Defendant had taken the accommodation on rent. After the death of Nurul Hasan, Mohd. Maqbool became the owner of the same and the Defendant has been paying rent to him since 1974. In paragraph 5 of the Additional written statement, however, the Defendant stated that he never committed any default nor did he ever question the title of the Plaintiff nor even has the Defendant ever set up title in any third person.