ONAD SINGH Vs. FATEH SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS second appeal has been filed by the unsuccessful plaintiff whose suit for ejectment was decreed by the trial court but was dismissed in appeal on the point of limitation by the first appellate court.

(2.) WE have heard the learned counsel for the parties and have examined the record as well. The only point involved for determination in this second appeal before us is as to whether the suit was instituted within the prescribed limitation or not. The plaintiffs alleged that the defendants obtained wrongful possession of the land in dispute in Svt. 1982 (1925 A. D.) after the father of the plaintiffs had died in 1924 A. D. It is also alleged in the plaint that one of the plaintiffs was four years old at the time of his father's death. It has not been disputed before us that in 1925 A. D. no law of limitation was in force in the former State of Mewar. The first law of limitation was enforced on 1st July, 1932. Item 5 of the Schedule appended to the Quanun Miyad Raj Mewar Svt. 1988 prescribed 20 years period for recovery of possession over immovable property commencing from the date the right to recover possession accrued. Sec. 5 (a) of the Act provides that if the plaintiff was suffering from any disability at the time when the period of limitation commenced he would be entitled to bring his suit within the period allowed in the Schedule after the cessation of the disability he was suffering from. The result of this provision when applied to the present suit would be that as the plaintiffs were minors at the time when the cause of action accrued they were entitled to a period of 20 years commencing from 1938 A D. as Shri Onad Singh attained majority in that year. Thus under the Mewar law the plaintiff could have brought this suit till 1958 A. D. But the enforcement of the Rajasthan Revenue Courts (Procedure and Jurisdiction) Act, 1951 after the formation of the State of Rajasthan altered this situation. Item 10 Group B, Schdl. I of this Act provides a twelve years limitation for the ejectment of a trespasser taking possession of the land without lawful authority commencing from the time when the act of trespass is committed Thus the period of limitation provided in the Rajasthan Revenue Courts (Procedure and Jurisdiction) Act, 1951, was shorter than that provided in Mewar Act. The case has, therefore, to be governed by sec. 9 of the Rajasthan Revenue Courts (Procedure and Jurisdiction) Act, 1951. This Section provides that the suits and applications specified in the first and second schedules shall be instituted and made within the time prescribed therein for them respectively provided that any such suit or application for which the period prescribed by the aforesaid schedules is shorter than the period prescribed by the law in force prior to the commencement of this Act then such suit or application may be instituted or made within six months next after the commencement of this Act or within the period of limitation prescribed by the aforesaid law whichever period expires first.