JASWANT SINGH AND ORS. Vs. KESHO DASS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IMPUGNED in the present regular second appeal is the judgment and decree dated 14.2.1986, passed by the learned Additional District Judge, Gurdaspur, whereby the judgment and decree dated 26.2.1985, passed by the learned Additional Senior Sub Judge, Pathankot, was set aside and the appeal was allowed.

(2.) BRIEF facts of the case are that the plaintiffs (appellants herein) had filed a suit for declaration to the effect that they have become owners of the suit land, fully detailed in the plaint, on account of their having been in continuous possession as tenants for more than hundred years under the express and implied contractual conditions of never to eject. The permanent injunction was also sought for restraining the defendant (respondent herein) from dispossessing the plaintiffs/appellants from the suit land, measuring 30 kanals 17 marlas, by force and without due course of law. The land is described as khasra Nos. 451, 476 min South and 477, as per the Jamabandi for the year 1976 -77 of village Daulatpur, Tehsil Pathankot.

(3.) THE defendant/respondent denied that the plaintiffs/appellants or their predecessors -in -interest are in continuous possession or having been cultivating the suit land for more than hundred years. It was stated that they have never been the tenants in the suit land. The express or implied promise was also denied. It was claimed that defendant/respondent was the owner in possession of the suit land. Therefore, the question of plaintiffs/appellants becoming occupancy tenants under Section 8 of the Punjab Tenancy Act, 1887, does not arise. The plaintiffs/appellants also have not acquired the proprietary rights in the Occupancy Tenant Act, 1953.