SRINIRASULU Vs. SORAAIAH CHATTY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The accused, who is the petitioner herein, was convicted by the trial court of the offence of mischief punishable under section 426 I.P.C. and sentenced to pay a fine of Rs. 200/-or in default to suffer simple imprisonment for two weeks, and out of the fine, a sum of Rs.100/- was directed to be paid to the complainant (who is the 1st respondent here) as compensation. On appeal by the accused, his conviction and sentence were confirmed by the Additional Sessions Judge, Kurnool. the facts concurrently found by both the courts below are the following; the complainant is the owner of house No. 129 in ward No. 14 in Adoni Municipality, having purchased it under Ex, P. 1, a sale deed dated 21-12-1953, from one Balaiah. Immediately to the south of this house, lies the house of the accused the sullage water from the house of the complainant flows through an underground drain which runs underneath the house of the accused and which has been in existence from time immemorial. But, as the accused had obstructed the said flow of water through the drain in the year 1936, the predecessor-in-title of the complainant had filed O. S. No. 86/36 in the District Munsif's Court, Bellary to establish his right of essement and for a mandatory injunction directing the accused to remove the obstruction put up by him. the suit was decreed as prayed for. The accused carried the matter in appeal to the District Court, Bellary, in AS. No. 102 of 1936, but the appeal was dismissed and the judgment and decree of the court of first instance were confirmed. After the purchase of the property by the complainant, the dirty water used to flow through the drain as before. However, on 21-9-1960, the accused again caused obstrction to the flow of water through the drain by means of a cement plaster at the point where the water entered through an opening in the accused's wall into the underground drain.

(2.) The result was that the dirty water could not flow as usual through the drain and got stagnated in the complainant's premises ; and when the tenant who was occupying the house, complained of the high-handed act of the accused, the latter was adamant and defied the complainant to do his worst. Thereupon the complainant filed a complaint out of which the present revision arises. Various pleas were put forward by the accused in the courts below, but all of them were negatived, and were not pressed before me. The only point that survives for my consideration in this revision petition is whtether, assuming the facts as found by the courts below to be correct, the ingredients of th e offence of mischief have been made out. The contention of the learned advocate for the petitioner was that by closing up the drain within trie site belonging to the accused and preventing the flow of sullage water from the complainant's house through the underground drain, the accused might have interfered with the right of the easement of the complainant, but a right of easement is not "property" within the meaning of section 425 I. P. C., and consequently the accused had not committed the offence of mischief. For this proposition, the learned advocate relied on a number of decisions such as those reported in Rudraraju Ramaraju v. Emperor Sumitra v. Dhannu , Ram Roop v. Emperor and Sailen Sardar v. States

(3.) In all those cases it was laid down as a proposition of law that "property" as contemplated by section 425 I.P.C. which is the definition section means tangible property, but does not include an incorporeal or intangible property, such as an easement. I must say I am inclined to agree with this proposition, but that however, does not conclude the matter and does not absolve the accused in this case and take his act out of the purview of section 425 I.P.C. That section, so far as is material for the present purpose, runs as follows: