KASHIRAM Vs. JAIWANT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BY invoking the jurisdiction of this Court under section 100 of the Code of Civil Procedure, this second appeal is filed by the original plaintiff challenging the judgment dated 21-1-1989 passed by the additional District Judge (Mr. J. H. Bhatia) in Regular Civil Appeal No. 564 of 1983 whereby the appeal came to be allowed and the suit of the plaintiff is dismissed and the judgment and decree passed by the Trial Court on 19-11-1983 is set aside by which the respondents defendants were directed to deliver the possession of the suit premises with future inquiry into the mesne profit under order 20, Rule 12 (l) (c) of the Code of Civil Procedure.

(2.) BRIEF facts are required to be stated as under : shri Hanuman Deosthan, Navi Shukrawari, Nagpur is a registered Public trust being registration No. A/50 (N) and through its trustees had filed suit for eviction of the defendants on the contentions that the house No. 873 situated in circle No. 3 of Nagpur Municipal Corporation is a property owned by Haridas baba Vaishnav who died about 70 years ago. One Bansilal Gangadin Pardeshi teli was a disciple of Haridas Baba and after the death of the former, Bansilal was the Wahiwatdar of the said Math and he was supervising all the religious activities of the said Math. After the death of Bansilal, his wife Yashodabai used to look after the management of the Math and carried on the religious duties faithfully. She is said to have executed one document on 3-5-1946 (Exh. 41) by which the panch committee was appointed and they were acting as trustees of the said Math including herself. She also died subsequently and out of the total five trustees, except one Ramjivan Kaluaram all are not alive. After the death of badal Girdharilal, who was Sarpanch of this Committee, one Chhotelal Pardeshi assumed the office of the Sarpanch and in that capacity he made an application to the Deputy Charity Commissioner for registration of the Math as a public trust under the provisions of M. P. Public Trust Act, 1951. It is contended that the said trust was registered and whatever the property was owned by the trust was entered into the register of public trust vide Rule 3. The Municipal House No. 152 was stated to be the property of the trust in that register. Then, after the death of Chhotelal, some persons of the locality made an application to the Deputy charity Commissioner for framing a scheme for the management of the trust. Accordingly, the plaintiff Nos. 2 to 6 were appointed as trustees by the order passed by the Deputy Charity Commissioner on 4-4-1975. The defendants were occupying the suit house as tenant. A notice dated 4-11-1977 was served on the defendants No. 2 Vijay who was called upon to pay the arrears of rent for three years till October, 1977 @ Rs. 110/- per month. Another notice dated 12-12-1977 was served on the defendants and they were called upon to vacate the suit premises and to pay arrears of rent. The defendants did not make any amends and there fore the plaintiff was constrained to file the suit for possession based on the title and also for the arrears of occupation charges.

(3.) THE defendants combated the contentions of the plaintiff and denied the title. The defendants admitted that the suit house was known as Haridas Baba math and they were occupying this property since about last 30 years. They contended that they used to perform Pooja and Utsav and they are occupying the suit house for more than 30 years openly, peacefully without any interruption and therefore they have acquired the title by adverse possession.