KULWANTRAI GOAL Vs. JOHAN CHRISTIAN AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE Defendant is in appeal against the confirming decision of the learned Subordinate Judge of Sundergarh in a suit for title, recovery of possession end damages. The disputed property is a strip of land 48 ft. x 16 ft. equal to about two decimals in area and is part of plot No. 452 with a total area of 96 decimals. The Plaintiffs came to Court on the allegation that the property was theirs and they were in possession and only in 1963 the Defendant No. 1 trespassed upon the property. Originally there was only one Defendant. He took the plea that he acquired the property by purchase from one Gangaram who came to be added by amendment as Defendant No. 2 in this suit. The Defendant No. 6 filed a written statement saying that for the first time he came upon the property in 1957. He had no title, but thinking that he was in possession of some Government land, he came to occupy an area of 55 ft. x 65 ft. He raised a kutcha house thereupon and ultimately when he left he sold the materials of the house and not the sand to one Haricharan Agarawalla (d.w. 2).

(2.) THE Courts below have accepted the fact that the Plaintiffs were in possession until 1963 when the Defendant No. 1 trespassed. They have discarded the claim of the first Defendant that he acquired title to the property by sale from the Defendant No. 6 The further case made by the Defendant No. 1 in the amended written statement that there was a purchase through Haricharan (d.w. z) has also not been accepted.