BHAGWAN DAS Vs. HARI RAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a defendant's appeal in a case in which the plaintiff, claiming to be the transferee of the proprietor of a certain house, sued for the defendant's ejectment. The main question raised is whether the Courts below were right in deciding that the suit was not barred by limitation under the provisions of Article 139 of the Second Schedule to the Indian Limitation Act (X of 1877). The facts found by the lower appellate Court are that the predecessor-in-title of the plaintiff leased the house on July 14th, 1886, for a term of five years to the father of the defendant-appellant. No rent was ever paid after the expiration of this term of five years, and the present suit was brought on September 8th, 1908. The learned District Judge holds that, in the absence of evidence that the defendant-appellant or his father ever denied their lessor's title, it cannot be said that their possession ever became adverse, or that limitation ever began to run against the lessor. So far as this Court is concerned, the particular point decided by the lower appellate Court is concluded by authority in an opposite sense. There are two published rulings in each of which a Bench of this Court has held that on the expiration of a lease for a fixed term, time begins to run against the lessor under Art. 139 of the Second Schedule to Act XV of 1877.

(2.) I refer to Lachman V/s. Gulzari Lal 1 A.L.J. 201 and Puna Mal V/s. Makhdum Bakhsh 6 A.L.J. 584 : 3 Ind. Cas. 566 : 31 A. 514.

(3.) It was, therefore, not on the appellant to prove denial of title, but on the plaintiff-respondent to prove such payment of rent or admission of title as would serve to extend the period of limitation. This it has been found that the plaintiff failed to prove.