JANARDAN NARAYAN DHAPRE Vs. LAKSHMAN MAHADEV DESHPANDE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a suit brought by the plaintiffs-respondents to recover possession of the land in suit on the ground that the land was their ancestral property and that the defendants were their annual tenants.

(2.) The defendants contended that the grant to the plaintiff's was of the royal share of the revenue and was not of the soil, and that the defendants were permanent tenants, under Section 83 of the Bombay Land Revenue Code.

(3.) Both the Courts have found that the grant to the plaintiffs was of the soil. The learned Subordinate Judge found that in the year 1758 one Kasi Ghadge was the tenant of the lands in suit, and therefore came to the conclusion that the defendants family came to occupy the land after the year 1758. There is no evidence as to who was in possession between the years 1758 and 1860. The learned Subordinate Judge, therefore, held that as the history of the tenancy of the suit land for about one hundred years was not clearly established the tenancy of the defendants was not necessarily lost in antiquity, and following the decision in Narayan V/s. Pandurang , held that the defendants failed to prove the presumption arising under Section 83 of the Bombay Land Revenue Code.