PURNA KOCH @ PURNA KANTA KOCH Vs. LOKNATH DUTTA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal from the judgment and decree passed by the learned District Judge, Lakhimpur in Title Appeal No. 14 of 1977 dismissing the appeal and affirming the judgment and decree passed by the learned Munsiff in Title Suit No. 32 of 1971 decreeing the claim of the plaintiff for possession of the suit land.

(2.) The plaintiff-respondent brought the suit for the declaration of title and khas possession of the suit land basing on an annual lease granted to him for the year 1963-64 under an annual lease patta, Ext-1. The case of the plaintiff is that he was possessing the suit land at the time of the grant of the lease and continued to possess it till 1966. In the year 1966, while the plaintiff was ill, taking the advantage of his illness the defendant illegally cultivated the land and refused to vacate the suit land. The defendant contested the suit denying the title of the plaintiff. The case of the defendant was that the suit land originally belonged to his grand-mother and his grand-mother gave up the possession of the land as the land was under water and therefore it became a sarkari land. When the land became fit for cultivation, the defendant and his father took over the possession of the land before 1966. The defendant has been in possession of the suit land for more than 12 years. The patta should have been issued in the name of the defendant.

(3.) The findings of the Courts below are that the suit land was made sarkari in the year 1936 for default of payment of revenue for the year 1934-35; and that the plaintiff was granted annual lease under patta, Ext-1; and that the plaintiff was in possession of the suit land in the year 1963 when he was granted the lease. The Courts below also rejected the plea of "adverse possession" of defendant.