JAGANNATH PRASAD Vs. RUSTAM ALI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The sole question involved in this appeal is concerned with the right of lambardars in the course of management of parti lands in a village, which parti lands are timber-bearing lands, to grant a lease of that land to lessees for the purpose of cutting down timber and converting it into charcoal.

(2.) A lease was executed in this case by the lambardars on 27 of July 1908, for a term of three years, purporting to give the plaintiffs, the lessees, power to cut down wood and convert it into charcoal. The appellants "who are co-sharers in the village objected to and interfered with the cutting down of the timber and alleged that the lambardars had no power to grant a lease of the kind.

(3.) The Courts below relying upon the provisions of the Wajib-ul-arz of the village came to the conclusion that lambardars were authorised to grant the lease. It is said that the provisions of the Wajib-ul-arz do not give the lambardars such power and that under the ordinary powers of management they are not entitled to grant a lease of the kind. On the other hand it is argued that they have such power under the Wajib-ul-arz but that in any case they have such a power if the lease be not detrimental to the interest of the co-sharers.