SURESHWAR SINGH Vs. SARAL CHAUHAN AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard Sri Triveni Shanker, learned counsel for the appellant and Sri Abhishek Kumar, learned counsel for the respondents.

(2.) This is the defendant's second appeal arising out of the judgment passed in Civil Appeal No. 122 of 1988 (Saral Chauhan and others v. Sureshwar Singh and others).

(3.) Briefly stated the facts of the case are that Saral Chauhan, the plaintiff-respondent first set filed Suit no. 414 of 1984 seeking relief of declaration in favour of the plaintiffs in respect of the land demarcated by the numbers 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 20 and 21 and for a further direction that the defendants may be evicted from the said land. The suit was contested by the petitioner-defendant who filed a written statement denying the plaint allegations. The trial court dismissed the plaintiff's suit vide its judgment dated 12.1.1988. The issue No. 1 framed by the trial court was whether the plaintiff is in possession of the land in dispute? Issue No. 2 was whether the disputed land was part of plot no. 1540/1, 1540/3 and 1540/4. Issue No. 3 was whether there was any agreement between the plaintiffs and the defendants in respect of the plot no. 1540 as alleged in the written statement. The case of the plaintiffs was that their possession over the land in dispute was ancestral which is a sehan and that they were in possession of the same prior to coming into force of the Uttar Pradesh Zamindari Abolition & Land Reforms Act, 1950 (hereinafter referred to as the Act, 1950). The trial court, however, held that the plaintiffs have not filed any document in proof to show that they were in possession of the plot in dispute or that their names have been recorded in the revenue record over the plot in dispute since prior to the coming into force of the Act, 1950.