BASWANTAPPA IRAPPA DESAI Vs. BHIMAPPA YELLAPPA KOPPAD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The plaintiff sued for a permanent injunction restraining defendants Nos. 1 to 4 from interfering with the plaintiff's right to get water from the land either in the ownership or occupation of the defendants, and Us. 25 as damages. Exhibit 37 is the map prepared by the commissioner which correctly shows the position of the various Survey Numbers mentioned in the case and the water channels. Defendant No. 4 is the owner of Survey No. 91, but has let that Survey Number to defendants Nos. 1-3 who are also the owners of Survey No. 4. The plaintiff was the owner of Survey Nos. 92 and 86.

(2.) The plaintiff's case is that he was entitled as of right to get the rain water which was flowing through Survey No. 91 on to his land by means of existing channels, and that the defendants were not entitled to obstruct the flow of the water through those channels.

(3.) The trial Court decided in favour of the plaintiff, but unfortunately owing to an incorrect map being used, it found that the plaintiff was entitled to succeed, not only because he had acquired a prescriptive right to receive this water, but because he had the ordinary rights of a riparian owner with regard to the main channel which carried away the rain water towards a tank. On a reference to the commissioner's map Exhibit 37, it will be perfectly clear that the trial Court was in error in thinking that the plaintiff was a riparian owner because the main channel flowed entirely within Survey No. 91, and the water which flowed on to the plaintiff's land flowed through channels taking off from the main channel at right angles.