EMPEROR Vs. BHAROSA PATHAK

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This application for revision arises out of proceedings taken by a Magistrate under Section 133 of the Criminal Procedure Code. The facts, as far as they can be gathered from the record and the not very luminous judgment of the lower court, appear to be as follows:--The complainants in the matter are residents and cultivators of Aman and Basarat, two villages, and the opposite party are residents of Barkagaon. Apparently the lands of the latter village lie at a lower level than those of the two former and when excessive rain falls the water from the higher lands flows down upon the lower lands of Barkagaon. Presumably both sets of lands lie in an ill-defined hollow. In 1885, there was civil litigation between the parties in regard to a dam which the Barkagaon people built across their fields to prevent the excess water from the lands above flowing on to their lands. The Civil Court held that the dam was an ancient one and maintained it. The patwari s evidence also shows that there is a tal or jhil in Aman, the end of which is also damned to keep back its waters, and that this dam is broken in several places.

(2.) The complaint made to the Magistrate was to the effect that the opposite party, the Barkagaon men, had extended their old dam both eastwards and westwards, thereby adding a further obstruction to the flow of excess water along its natural channel over the lands of Barkagaon with the result that the lands above the dam were flooded and a large area of crops damaged. As usual, they exaggerated their case by pleading that houses in their villages had been flooded out and had fallen.

(3.) The Magistrate, who inspected the locality and recorded the evidence, has found that there has been a considerable extension of the dam resulting in the holding up of a large volume of water, and that this has resulted in considerable injury to the crops growing over a considerable area above the dam.