RAM BARAI SHAW Vs. SM. BIBHABATI BASAK

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal is at the instance of the defendant and it arises out of a suit for declaration of title and recovery of possession.

(2.) The case of the plaintiffs is that the suit land as per schedule 'A' to the plaint was allotted to the share of Sm. Jagat Pabani Dasi by the final decree for partition passed in Title Suit No. 51 of 1928 of the 6th Court of Subordinate Judge, Alipore. In terms of the decree, the Receivers of her estate were required to pay some owelty money to the other parties in that suit. In order to recover his share of the owelty money, Shib Chandra Bose, one of the parties to the suit, put the decree into execution and one Brindaban Chandra Basak purchased the 'A' schedule land and the other adjacent lands in auction as benamdar of the present plaintiffs. A sale certificate was issued in the name of Brindaban who took delivery of possession of the suit land through court on Nov. 15, 1953. Thereafter, the plaintiffs began to use and occupy the suit land in khas as a garden. Brindaban executed a deed of release in favour of the plaintiffs on Dec. 23, 1955 disclaiming his interest in the suit land. During Revisional Settlement Operation, the defendant managed to erect a temporary hut in the 'B' schedule land forming part of the 'A' schedule land and got his name recorded in the R.S. record-of-rights. The defendant is trying to dispossess the plaintiffs from the rest of the 'A' schedule land and accordingly, the plaintiffs have filed the suit for the reliefs aforesaid.

(3.) The defendant has contested the suit by a written statement. His defence is that his father, late Bhikary Shaw was a tenant in respect of the entire 'A' schedule and under one Sital Bose and had been in possession thereof from 1932 to 1948 and since his father's death he has been in possession there of by erecting structures and ploughing the land. He has denied the title of the plaintiffs in the suit land on the ground that the interests of the plaintiffs have vested in the State of West Bengal under the provisions of the West Bengal Estates Acquisition Act, 1953, hereinafter referred to as the Act. It is contended that the suit is barred by limitation and plaintiffs not having possession of the suit land within twelve years prior to the institution of the suit, it is not maintainable.