RADHA GOBINDA RAI Vs. DIBAKAR MANTO

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These two appeals related to the apportionment between the landlords and tenants of the compensation money held by the Special Land Acquisition Officer of Dhanbad to be payable for acquisition of different pieces of lands in village Parasoania for the purposes of the Sindri Fertiliser Project of the Government of India,

(2.) The question referred for decision to this Bench, as it stands after some amendments made by us, is as follows :

(3.) The relevant facts are very simple. The Kabuliats executed by the tenants-respondents of both these appeals contain one common clause which is to the effect that, if the whole or any part of the leasehold land is acquired by the Government any company or railway, the entire compensation money would be paid to the lessors and their heirs, and the lessees would get only a proportionate remission of rent. On the basis of this condition in the two kabuliats, the landlords claimed the entire compensation money. One of the arguments advanced by the learned Pleader for the tenants (i e., the lessees) before the learned Subordinate Judge, who heard the reference made by the Special Land Acquisition Officer, was that the clause mentioned above was not binding upon the tenants, and he cited a Bench decision of this Court in Kashi Nath Ray v. Durga Prasad Singh 1 Pat LJ 604 : (AIR 1916 Pat 107) in support of his argument. There was a similar term in the kabuliats in question in that case. Their Lordships observed :