MULTAN RAM & OTHERS Vs. SADHU RAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal filed by the defendants in a suit for pre-emption which has been decreed in favour of the plaintiff- respondent, who was holding the land in dispute as a tenant.

(2.) The only dispute raised is that the respondent has not proved himself to be a tenant of the land in dispute at the time of the institution of the suit. In this connection, the learned lower appellate Court, which is the final Court of fact, relied upon a copy of the Khasra Girdawari Exhibit P-1 which depicts the position from 1967 upto March 11, 1971. In this document, the respondent has throughout been shown as a tenant. Once he was shown as a tenant on March 11, 1971, then there would be a presumption in favour of the continuance of his status as a tenant. Further more in sub-para 2(a) of the written-statement, the appellants themselves admitted that the respondent was a sub-tenant. This admission clinches the issue and proves beyond doubt that the respondent was holding the land as a tenant. The learned lower appellate Court was, therefore, justified in decreeing the claim of the respondent.