KANTESWAR CHOWDHURY Vs. PROVINCE OF ASSAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a second appeal from the judgment and decree of the learned District Judge, A. V. D., dated 18th Jan. 1944 by which he affirmed the judgment and decree of the trial Court which had dismissed the plaintiff-appellants' suit with costs.

(2.) The plaintiff-appellants 9 in number-brought a suit for a declaration that an order passed by the Sub-divisional Officer of Barpeta on 17th April 1939, settling the lands in suit with the defendant-respondents 2-38, was ultra vires and without jurisdiction; that likewise an order passed by the Revenue Tribunal on 14th Nov. 1941, ordering eviction of the appellants was without jurisdiction; that the appellants were entitled to remain in possession of the lands in suit and to get pattas in their favour, and for a permanent injunction restraining the respondents from evicting the appellants from the disputed lands measuring some 319 bighas odd situated in village Medhikuchi, mouza Hastinapur. The Province of Assam was impleaded as defendant 1.

(3.) The defence to the suit was that the Government of Assam was free to settle the lands in question with the other defendants as they were waste lands, there being no claim by any person who could be described as a land-holder or settlement-holder or a person having any other right to settlement under the Assam Land and Revenue Regulation.