RAM KIRPAL PANDEY Vs. JANKI PRASAD CHAUDHURY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal by the plaintiffs arises out of a suit for recovery of possession of 111 bighas and odd of land described in schedules I and It of the plaint.

(2.) The question, which it raises for determination, is, whether these lands in suit, which, on the finding of the Court below, are reformations on the old site, which is clearly identifiable as being part of village Salha on the southwestern bank of river Bakeya belonging to the plaintiffs, now, by reason of the flowvial action of the river, on its north-eastern bank, attached to village Hasanpur Khurd, belonging to the defendants, still belongs to the plaintiffs.

(3.) The facts, which are no longer in dispute, are these; river Bagmati or Bakeya, as it is known in the locality, flows between villages Salha Tauzi Nos. 618 and 16072 belonging to the plaintiffs, and Hasanpur Khurd Tauzi No. 2704 belonging to the defendants. The mid-stream line of the river was the boundary line between the two villages, Salha and Hasanpur Khurd, at the time of the revenue survey in 1846, and, it appears that the whole of Schedule II lands and a part of schedule I lands were, then, on the north-eastern bank of the river and within the boundary of Hasanpur Khurd. River Bakeya seems to have shifted its course slowly and gradually towards north-east, and at the time of the cadastral survey in 1900, the entire schedule I land, consisting of 76 bighas and odd, was on the south-western bank of the river appertaining to village Salha, and was surveyed as part of that village. The whole of Schedule II land, consisting of 35 bighas and odd, was, at that time, on the north-eastern bank of the river appertaining to village Hasanpur Khurd and was surveyed as part of that village. The mid-stream line of the river Bakeya was shown in the map prepared by the cadastral survey as being the boundary between the two villages. It appears, further, that the river Bakeya kept on shifting its course slowly and gradually towards north, in consequence of which, the last mentioned in Schedule II diluviated from the Hasanpur aide and alluviated on the Salha side, and was taken possession of by the plaintiffs sis having accreted to their estate without any objection whatsoever on the part of the maliks of Hasanpur Khurd. There was a partition between the maliks of Salha in the year 1914-15 and the lands mentioned both in schedules I and II were partitioned amongst them as appertaining to their village Salha.