GOUR SUNDAR MAJUMDAR Vs. KRISHNA KAMINI CHAUDHURANI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These two appeals are directed against the concurrent decisions of the Courts below arrived at in two-suits for assessment of fair and equitable rent and for recovery of damages for use and occupation of lands for the period from 1331 to 1333 B. S., as also for other reliefs. The defence of the contesting; defendant, defendant 1 in the suit, was that there was no relationship of landlord and tenant between him and the plaintiff in the suit: that the lands in respect of which assessment of fair rent was asked for, were held by him as kaimi mukarari jama under the pro forma defendant 2 in the suits. It was also pleaded in defence that the suits as laid were not maintainable inasmuch as all the cosharer landlords had not instituted the suits as plaintiffs.

(2.) It would appear from the finally published Record of Eights that the plaintiff was landlord of the contesting defendant in the suits in respect of the lands mentioned in the plaint: the defendant being a tenure-holder. The entries in the record further show that the defendant was paying certain amounts to the pro forma defendant 2, as rent, but no rent was shown as payable to the plaintiff. The record however contained a note that the tenancies forming the subject matter of these suits were liable to be assessed with rent in respect of the shares of the cosharar landlords, of whom the plaintiff was one. The plaintiff's claim was therefore based upon the state of things appearing from the finally published Record of Rights, no rent having: been settled as payable by the contesting defendant in the suits in respect of the plaintiff's share.

(3.) The Courts below have agreed in overruling the defence of defendant 1 in the suits, and in assessing fair and equitable rent as prayed by the plaintiff in the suits. The lower Courts have also passed decrees in favour of the plaintiff, for damages for use and occupation of the lands in suit for the years 1331, 1332 and 1333 B. S., the measure of damages being the fair and equitable rent assessed in the suits.