MOHAMMAD AHSAN Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This second appeal arises out of a decision of the learned Subordinate Judge of Biharsharif passed in Title Appeal No. 52 of 1964, by which he reversed the judgment and decree of the learned Munsif of Bihar passed in title suit No. 52 of 1961.

(2.) The plaintiff is the appellant. He had brought a title suit for declaration of title and confirmation of possession, or, in the alternative, recovery of possession, in respect of 0.68 acre of lands in plot No. 3 of khata No. 8 with an area of 0.54 acre and plot No. 8 of Khata No. 9 having an area of 0.14 acre. His case was that one Shaikh Moula Bux was the landlord of the touzi, in which this land lay. Though he was a co-sharer landlord, he managed the land of this touzi on behalf of all the co-sharers. On the 2nd August 1912, the plaintiff's father took this land from Shaikh Moula Bux in settlement under a registered deed after paying a salami of Rs. 105 and the rent having been fixed at eight annas annually. This rent was fixed in perpetuity. When the zamindari interest vested in the State of Bihar, the karmachari began to interfere with the possession of the plaintiff, who used to hold a hat over this area, and began realising tolls from the shopkeepers of that hat. This disturbance by the karmachari cast a cloud over the plaintiff's title and so he brought the suit.

(3.) The defence taken by the State of Bihar was that, by this settlement, the plaintiff had acquired the interest of a tenure-holder and not that of a raiyat and, that being so, the interest of the tenure-holder vested in the State after January 1956.