MAHARAJA JAGATJIT SINGH Vs. RAJAH SARABJIT SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE Appellant is the raja of Kapurthala, and the proprietor of estates in Oudh on the banks of the Gogra river. The Respondent is the raja or talookdar of Ramnagar, and the proprietor of estates on the other side of that river. There has been litigation between the two houses extending over many years. The present dispute commenced in the year 1871, when the Appellant's father was living; but his death has not, except on one point not necessary to decide or state now, affected the question. There have been suits and cross-suits, appeals and cross-appeals, petitions and cross-petitions, sometimes by agents, and sometimes by principals, and the parties have interchanged places on the record so often that it is confusing to speak of them in the character of Plaintiffs or Defendants. It will perhaps be clearer to call the Appellant's side Kapurthala and the Respondent's Ramnagar.

(2.) IN the month of December, 1871, Kapurthala brought a suit against Ramnagar to assert his title to a tract of land on the banks of the Gogra; and in January, 1872, Ramnagar brought a cross-suit against Kapurthala in respect of the same land. After a while the parties came to a compromise, which was expressed in a decree dated the 3rd of February, 1873, and pronounced by Colonel Chamier, the then Deputy Commissioner of Bari Banki, in whose Court Ramnagar's cross-suit was pending. The terms of the compromise were to the following effect. Part of the land in dispute was to be attributed to Kapurthala's village, Tappa Sipah, according to the Revenue Survey map; another part was to be attributed to Ramnagar's villages, Para and Deorya Tilkunia, according to the same map; the remainder was to be apportioned rateably to the villages above named.

(3.) AFTER this point the execution proceedings dragged slowly on. It is not necessary to detail them. A map was made and signed by Colonel Chamier in June, 1874. In April and June, 1876, orders were made for possession, and on the 27th of June, 1876, a receipt of possession was signed by Kapurthala's agents and the long dispute appeared to be finally decided on the 1st of September, 1876, when Mr. Wood, then Deputy Commissioner of Bara Banki, pronounced an order as follows: After hearing the objections of the pleaders on both sides, the Court decides that the decree must be executed according to the map prepared by Colonel Chamier, dated the 16th of June, 1874, and the southern boundary of the disputed land will be that drawn in the above map. If either party consider that they have any claim to lands thrown up by the river, they have their remedy by a regular suit. This Court cannot go contrary to the map prepared by Colonel Chamier. The parties have been informed of this order, and as the decree, from the report of the Extra Assistant Commissioner, has now been executed, the papers will be consigned to the Records.