C ETHIRAJA MUDALIAR Vs. NMURUGESA MUDALIAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a batch of appeals arising out of suits filed by the tenants of Zamin Devaranjeri village, Ponneri Taluk under Section 112 of the Madras Estates Land Act for raising the attachment of the holdings effected by the appellant. Several grounds were alleged in the plaint of which three require notice: (1) There was no proper exchange of patta and muchilika between the plaintiff and the defendant for the fasli 1343 and there was no proper tender of patta. Therefore the attachment proceedings were not proper and valid. (2) It is not competent for the appellant to initiate the proceedings for sale under the Estates Land Act on the ground that he was not the sole proprietor of the village and that there were other co-sharers who ought to have joined in the proceedings. (3) The merais claimed in the demand notice were not legally enforceable.

(2.) The defendant in the written statement urged that there were valid pattas and muchilikas in force, that he was competent to take proceedings under the Estates Land Act and bring the holdings of the tenants to sale and that the merais. were legally enforceable.

(3.) The Deputy Collector who tried these suits held that pattas and muchilikas were exchanged in some cases and tendered in other cases and therefore he would hold that there was exchange of pattas and muchilikas continuing in force and that though the defendant had a brother, Kesava Mudaliar, he was only a minor and that the defendant was competent to take proceedings without joining his brother. With regard to the merais he held some of them enforceable and some not.