GAUDU NILAMANI DORA Vs. SANSANPURI MALIKERJUNO AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS appeal is by the Plaintiff against the concurrent decisions of the two lower Courts dismissing his suit for eviction of the Respondents from some lands situate in village Khandava on the ground that the suit was not cognizable by the Civil Court.

(2.) THE Plaintiff is the Dora of village Khandava which is one of the Doratenam villages within Parlakimedi zamindari. He urged that the Defendants were merely lessees who were permitted to cultivate some of the lands of the village on payment of cash rental to the Plaintiff, that they had no occupancy rights in the lands inasmuch as they were not tenants as contemplated in the Madras Estates Land Act and that he was entitled to evict them after giving due notice to quit. The main defence of the Defendants was that Khandava village was an estate as defined in Section 3(2) of the Madras Estates Land Act and that they had acquired occupancy rights over the disputed Land as ryota of the village. Hence, they urged that the Civil Court had no jurisdiction to try the suit.

(3.) A correct decision of the aforesaid two issues depends on