HIS HIGHNESS MAHARAJA KIRIT BIKRAM KISHORE DEV BARMA MANIKYA BAHADUR Vs. MAHARAJ KUMAR GIRIDHARI KISHORE DEV BARMA BAHADUR AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an appeal filed by the plaintiff in Civil Suit No. 26 of 1955 on the file of the Sub -Judge of Tripura in Agartala against the judgment and decree dated 26 -9 -1958 dismissing with costs the suit filed by the appellant for declaration that the respondents are the appellant's licensees living in the plaint schedule old Thakur Boarding house, situate within the appellant's Ujjayanta Palace Compound in Agartala and for recovery of possession of the same.

(2.) THE case of the appellant is that his father late His Highness Bir Bikram Kishore Dev Barma Manikya Bahadur was the sole proprietor and the sovereign authority of the entire Tripura State During his regime the respondents used to live in the Harem situate within the Ujjayanta Palace of the Maharaja in Agartala. Some boy students of Thakur families were living in the plaint schedule old Thakur Boarding, which is about 6 kanis in extent. The respondents 1 and 6 (who were the defendants 1 and 2) were living in the Royal Harem as members of the Royal family. In 1347 T.E. there was a sudden devastating fire in the Royal Harem, which destroyed the abodes of all respondents and rendered them homeless. So the appellant's father late Bir Bikram Kishore Dev Barma Manikya Bahadur shifted the students from the Thakur Boarding house elsewhere and permitted the respondents 1 and 6 along with Maharaj Kumar Aditya Kishore Dev Barma, Maharaj Kumar Hemanta Kishore Dev Barma and other Maharaj Kumars and members of the Royal family to live in the old Thakur Boarding house temporarily as his licensees. The late Maharaja took pity upon the Maharaj Kumars including the first respondent and with a view to providing them with separate houses he selected plots of lands at different places outside the Palace Compound. He sanctioned suitable amounts of money to all the Maharaj Kumars excepting the first respondent for the construction of houses on the plots. The late Maharaja's widow, Mata Maharani, sanctioned a sum of Rs. 8,000 for construction of a house for the first respondent. After the death of late Maharaja and during the period of Regency of Mata Maharani and shortly after the fire incident all the Maharaj Kumars excepting the first respondent and late Maharaj Kumar Arjun Kishore Dev Barma constructed separate houses on their respective plots with the money sanctioned to them. They shifted from the. Thakur Boarding house with their family members to their respective houses. Late Maharaj Kumar Arjun Kishore Dev Barma died childless after his marriage in the Thakur Boarding house in or about 1944 or 1945 A.D. After his death, his widow also died. His mother had predeceased him in 1939. The seventh respondent (third defendant) was living in the Royal Harem until the death of the mother of late Maharaj Kumar Arjun Kishore Dev Barma. After her death, she left the Royal Harem on her own will and began to live in the Thakur Boarding house as a licensee and with the permission of late Maharaja looking after late Maharaj Kumar Arjun Kishore Dev Barma.

(3.) THE appellant finally averred in nil plaint that the respondents 6 and 7 (defendants 2 and 3) are entitled, according to the traditional custom of the Royal family, to live in the Royal Harem until their death under the care of the appellant, as they are female members of the Royal Harem and that the appellant was and is still willing to accommodate them in the Royal Harem.