RESHMI KUER Vs. HIYAWATI KUER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Defendants are the appellants and the appeal arises out of a suit instituted for recovery" of Rs. 1,330/ - as the price of half share in the mango crop grown on the land which had been given to the defendants by a registered instrument on the 5th of October, 1924 by the plaintiffs' predecessor -in -interest. The land on which the mango crop was grown was a zirat land of the granter. Plaintiffs complained that though they were entitled to half share of the. mango crop from the defendants, they did not deliver that to the plaintiffs after 1958. The suit was for recovery of the price of the plaintiffs' share in the mango crop for two years before the suit was instituted on the 23rd of July, 1960. In that plaintiff alleged that the defendants were licensees under the document dated the 5th of October, 1924.

(2.) The suit was resisted on several grounds, one of them being that after the vesting of the estate in the State of Bihar Land Reforms Act, the plaintiffs had lost any right in the land on which the mango crop was grown and, therefore, was not entitled to any share in the mango crop with the defendants. They also pleaded that the land involved was bakasht land of the intermediary and not zirat.

(3.) The suit was decreed by the trial court which found with reference to Exs. A and B that the land was zirat and not bakasht, and that the plaintiffs were entitled to half share in the mango crop from the defendants. It also held on a reference to Exts. 5, 5/A and 4 that the plaintiffs' interest in the land had not vested in the State of Bihar and they were entitled to possession thereof on payment of rent to the State.