SOBHACHAND CHANDMAL Vs. GANU HANMANTA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE plaintiff filed suit No. 161 of 1950 in the Court of the Civil Judge, Junior Division, at Pimpalgaon, against the defendant for a decree for Rs. 700 as rent for the years Shake 1369 and 1870 of Section No. 7 and the guava garden therein with future interest and costs of the suit. It was the case of the plaintiffs that the defendant was a tenant of the plaintiffs of Section No. 7 of the village of Ambevanl which contained a guava garden. According to the plaintiffs the defendant had taken the land at a rental of Rs. 400/- and the defendant had agreed to pay Rs. 200/- for the guava garden; and the aggregate amount of annual rent payable by the defendant was accordingly Rs. 600/ -.

(2.) THE defence of the defendant was that the agreed rent was Rs. 180 per annum and he had paid the full amount of rent and nothing was due by him. The defendant denied that he had agreed to pay rent at the rate of RS. 200. /-for the guava garden or that he had agreed to pay rent at the rate of Rs. 400/- for the cultivable portion of the land.

(3.) THE learned trial Judge on a consideration of the evidence came to the conclusion that the total agreed rent per annum for the cultivable portion of the land and the guava garden was Rs. 300/ -. He also held that the defendant had only paid Rs. 380/- to the plaintiffs, and for the balance of Rs. 220/- the learned Judge passed a decree in favour of the plaintiffs. Against the decree passed by the trial Court the defendant went in appeal to the District Court at Nasik. In appeal the learned Court dismissed the plaintiffs' suit. The learned District Judge held that no agreement between the parties in respect of rent for the years in question was proved. He further held that the reasonable rent for the land in dispute was Rs. 180/- per annum. On the view that the payment made by the defendant towards rent fully satisfied the liability of the defendant, the learned District Judge reversed the decree passed by the trial Court and dismissed the plaintiffs' suit. The plaintiffs have come to this Court in second appeal.