(1.) LANDLORDS are the petitioners here under section 115 of the Civil Procedure Code. They were defendants in suits brought by the opposite parties. Their grievance is that the learned Munsif of Chinsurah should have held that the plaintiff opposite parties' suits would be barred first under section 21 of the West Bengal Land Reforms Act, 1955, and secondly under section 46 of the West Bengal Estates Acquisition Act, 1953, instead of deciding the two preliminary issues against the defendant-petitioners.
(2.) IN testing the objection regarding applicability of section 21 of the West Bengal Land Reforms Act the first thing to notice is that previously the plaintiff opposite parties had been adjudged bargadars in connection with a dispute regarding the produce of 1362 B. S. The learned Appellate Officer after hearing the appeal of the Bhagchas Officer in this connection upheld the contention of the present petitioners to the effect that the present opposite parties were bargadars, overruling the claim of the latter to tenancy right. In the relevant suits the plaintiff opposite parties claimed inter alia declaration of tenancy right by contract and alternatively acquisition of tenancy right by adverse possession besides confirmation of title. There is also a prayer in the suit for permanent injunction restraining the defendants from dispossessing the plaintiffs or putting any obstacles in the matter of their possession. Now, section 21 of the West Bengal Land Reforms Act, 1955 provides inter alia that no Civil Court shall entertain any suit or proceeding in respect of any matter mentioned in sections 17 and 18. Section 18 in conferring exclusive jurisdiction on the Bhagchas Officer clearly refers to an existing dispute regarding (a) division or delivery of the produce, (b) termination of cultivation by the bargadar (c) place of storing or thrashing the produce. Section 18 (2) also lays down:
(3.) THESE words were omitted, with retrospective effect, by a second Amendment (West Bengal Act XXV of 1957 ). Sub-section 4 of section 44 is to the following effect:-