PORAN GHOSH Vs. NETAI SUNDAR ROY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this case the plaintiffs-appellants sued for a declaration of their right to take water from a certain tank, the property of the defendants, for the purpose of irrigating a piece of land 9 cottas in area.

(2.) In a previous suit between the same parties or their predecessors-in-interest, by a consent decree dated the 13 of March 1874, this right of the plaintiffs was established but it appears that at that period the plot in question was under mulberry, and the lower appellate Court has found that the plaintiffs last exercised their right 17 or 18 years ago, when they ceased to grow mulberry trees. In the interval apparently the land has been used either for the purpose of growing kolai, a crop which does not require irrigation or has remained fallow.

(3.) The plaintiffs now seek to grow sugarcane and as the defendants averred that their right had been extinguished and denied that they had at any time a right to take water for the purpose of cultivating any crop other than mulberry, the plaintiffs brought this suit.