UNION OF INDIA Vs. FELIX VON GOLDSTEIN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an appeal, by two defendants, namely, the Union of India and the State of Himachal Pradesh, against the judgment and decree of the Senior Subordinate Judge, Mahasu, in a suit for the recovery of a sum of Rs. 7,564/ , instituted under the provisions of Section 78 of the Punjab Land Revenue Act, as applied to Himachal Pradesh. The appeal arises under the following circumstances:

(2.) IN 1912 A. D., the plaintiff respondent, Mr. Goldstein, purchased land, measuring 19 bighas 18 biswas in village Pagog, Koti State, from three persons, named Thakar Das, Ram Das and Gauri Datt, and built a residential house, a cottage, some outhouses thereupon and utilized the rest of the land for agricultural purposes. The transaction was, however, completed without the sanction of tile Koti Darbar, as was necessary in those times.

(3.) ON these premises, six preliminary issues were framed by the then Senior Subordinate Judge (Mr. Lachman Das). These preliminary issues were disposed of by Mr. Hem Chand on 26 4 1954 in the following manner: He held that the jurisdiction of the civil Courts was not barred, that ground rent had been demanded under some order, oral or written, of the Koti Darbar, that the Ruler's order could be challenged in a civil Court and the suit was not barred by the principles of res judicata.