MADHABA SAHU Vs. RAGHUNATH CHHOTARA AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) OPPOSITE party No. 1 (Plaintiff) filed O.S. No. 49 of 1973 in the Court of the Munsif, Khurda for declaration that neither Petitioner (Defendant No. 2), nor Defendants 1 and 3 were bhag tenants under him in respect of the suit land. The plea of the Defendants was that they were bhag tenants in respect of the land since the time of their ancestors. An application was filed by Defendant No. 2 stating that the suit was not maintainable in the civil Court, inasmuch as the relationship of landlord and tenant between the parties could not be decided by civil Court and also he had filed a case before the revenue Court under Section 15(1) of the Orissa Land Reforms Act and prayed that the civil suit be stayed till the final decision of the case under the Orissa Land Reforms Act.

(2.) THE learned; Munsif has rejected the said petition on the ground that amendment (d) of Section 15(1) of the Orissa Land Reforms Act was introduced after the suit was filed and the same having no retrospective effect, the suit is to proceed. As against this order the present revision has been filed.

(3.) ACCORDING to the learned Munsif, as there is no specific provision in Section 15 as to proceedings pending before the civil Court, the suit can proceed and this amendment will not be a bar.