RAJENDRA CHANDRA BISWAS Vs. MAHESH CHANDRA DAS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This revision petition under Sec. 25 of the Provincial Small Cause Courts Act, 1887, by the plaintiff Rajendra Chandra Biswas is directed against the judgment and decree dated 25 -3 -1968 by which the Small Cause Court. Dharmanagar, dismissed his suit for recovery of Rs. 65/ - from the defendant Mahesh Chandra Das on account of arrears of rent of a house for the period Sravan to Kartick, 1374 B. S.

(2.) According to the allegations set out in the plaint, the house had been let out to the defendant by the plaintiff with effect from 1st of Baisakh, 1370 B. S., on a monthly rental of Rs. 12/ - and the rent had been paid regularly by the defendant right up to Ashad, 1374 B. S. The defendant resisted the suit by denying the plea of tenancy. He alleged that he and his elder brother Rasamay being intimately known to the plaintiff they requested the latter for a piece of land to raise their own hut upon, that the plaintiff agreed to give them the land over which the house in dispute stands, and that it was 14 or 15 years ago that, pursuant to that arrangement they set up a hut and began to live therein without any obligation to pay rent. The value of the lands in the locality having registered a steep rise it was alleged further, due to the establishment of Railway station in the region, the plaintiff, sheerly out of avarice, began to press them for vacating the land. Faced with that situation, the defendant arranged a Panchayat meeting wherein it was decided that 1/3 of the land in dispute should be left with him (the defendant) and the balance of it should be vacated and made over to the plaintiff. However, subsequently the plaintiff went back on that agreement and filed a false suit for recovery of arrears of rent as a measure of harassment to the defendant.

(3.) The Small Cause Court held on the basis of the evidence led by the parties that the plaintiff had failed to establish that he had let out the house to the defendant against payment of Rs. 12/ - per mensem as rent. The plaintiff having felt sorely aggrieved with that conclusion of that Court and the decree founded on it filed the instant revision petition to seek redress.