RAM NARAIN JAGANNATH KURMI Vs. MADAN MOHAN ZIRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS revision is directed against the order of Civil Judge Class II, Narsimhpur, dated the 18th November 1976, in Civil Suit No. 22 B of 1976.

(2.) THE facts in brief are these: The defendant initiated proceedings before the Naib Tahsildar, Narsimhapur under section 250 of the M. P. Land Revenue Code complaining that the plaintiff had, with the help of one Bhagwat, damaged the crops by sloughing the land. On the first date fixed for hearing, the defendant did not appear and the proceedings were dismissed The plaintiff then filed the present suit for damages alleging that the proceedings initiated were malicious and that the defendant had no reasonable and probable cause for filing them. The damages claimed were, (i) Rs. 100 for mental anxiety caused by the proceedings, (ii) Rs. 25 paid to the counsel engaged to defend and (iii) Rs. 10 for loss of income for a day.

(3.) THE learned counsel for the defendant applicant contends that the observations made by the Court in 1970 JLJ 252 should not be read out of context. In that case, the person entitled to the property was kept out of possession and his rights of enjoyment were defeated by vexatious and dilatory proceedings. In that event, the Court held that the measure of damages was the profits taken by the defendant. That was a claim in the nature of mesne profits which the Court accepted.