MARIUMBI ASLAMKHAN Vs. VITHOBA YESHWANTA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a plaintiff's appeal against a decree passed by the Civil Judge, Senior Division, Bhir, dismissing a suit filed in forma pauperis for ' possession and mesne profits' of a number of agricultural lands. The lands are situate at village Patharwala Bujurg in the Bhir district They are about 196 acres in extent and are assessed at about Rs. 285/ -.

(2.) THE lands originally belonged to the ancestors of some of the defendants, particularly defendants Nos. 1, 2, 6, 7 and 8. They were, however, in the possession of one Din Mohammed Khan and his brother Fakir Mohammed Khan and the latter's sons Aslamkhan and" Mominkhah for a period of more than 20 years before 1948. The first plaintiff is the wife of the said Aslamkhan, the son of Fakir Mohammed Khan. The second plaintiff is a minor daughter of the first plaintiff. Two or three months prior to the Police Action (which took place in September 1948); Fakir Mohammed Khan and his sons Aslamkhan and Mominkhan were murdered and their house was looted and burnt. Fakir Mohammed Khan's brother Din Mohammed Khan had been murdered sometime earlier. At the time of the murders of Fakir Mohammed Khan, Aslamkhan and Mominkhan, the first plaintiff escaped from the house with her minor daughter the second plaintiff and took refuge in the territory of the Indian Union. A couple of months after the Police Action, the first plaintiff went back to the village Patharwala. Bujurg with her father. When she found that the defendants had taken possession of the agricultural lands of the family and were cultivating them jointly. Through the good offices of the Afgan Embassy the first plaintiff applied to the Government of the Hyderabad State for the restoration of the lands, but after a good deal of correspondence, she was advised by the Hyderabad Government to approach the Civil Court for redress. Hence the present suit was filed in forma pauperis by the two plaintiffs on 6th September, 1956,

(3.) THE plaintiff's stated in the plaint that the lands in suit belonged to Fakir Mohammed Khan and his sons Aslamkhan (the first plaintiff's husband) and Mominkhan. They described how Fakir Mohammed Khan, Aslamkhan and Mominkhan were murdered and their house set on fire and looted, how the -plaintiffs escaped and took refuge in the Union territory, and how the plaintiffs subsequently found that the defendants had usurped the lands and were cultivating them Jointly. The plaintiffs prayed for possession of the lands, for Rs. 35,000/-as mesne profits from 1949 to 1955 at the rate of Rs. 5,000/- per year, and for future mesne profits and costs,