STATE OF BIHAR Vs. PIRTHI CHAND LALL CHOUDHARY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal by the defendants. It arises out of a suit instituted by the plaintiff-respondent for recovery of damages from the defendants for loss alleged to have been caused to him on account of wrongful and illegal interference on their part with the possession and management of the plaintiff's estates and tenures between the 1st January, 1950, and the 15th July, 1950, or even thereafter until the 6th or the 7th August, 1950.

(2.) During the relevant period, the plaintiff was the proprietor of a large estate situate in the district of Purnea, known as "Raj Nazarganj" which comprised more than 200 Tauzis, of several of which the plaintiff was the sixteen annas proprietor, while holding fractional shares in the rest.

(3.) In 1949, the Bihar legislature passed an Act called "The Bihar State Management of Estates and Tenures Act, 1949" to provide for the State management of estates and tenures in the then Province of Bihar. This Act, which was Bihar Act XXI of 1949, received the assent of the Governor-General on the 29th September, 1949 and it was published in the Bihar Gazette, Extraordinary, on the 17th October, 1949. It is necessary to have an idea of the relevant provisions of the Act.