LAKSHMI NARASIMHAM Vs. VEERABADRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These appeals arise out of two suits filed by the plaintiff in the District Munsif's Court of Nuzvid to eject the defendants who are alleged to be his tenants.

(2.) The land in dispute is situate in Arugolam Mokhasa within the ambit of the Nuzvid Zamindari. It is alleged to have been exchanged for patta lands held under Government pattahs. The defendants pleaded inter alia that the Civil Court had no jurisdiction to entertain the suits as the land forms part of the estate within the meaning of the Estates Land Act, The District Munsif found the fifth issue, namely, whether the suit village is an estate, in favour of the defendants and dismissed the plaintiff's suits on the ground that the land in question was part of an estate within the meaning of the Estates Land Act. On appeal the Subordinate Judge held that the village in which the suit land is situate forms part of the Nuzvid Zamindari and is an estate as defined in Section 3, Clause 2(e) of the Estates Land Act, that the character of the land has cot changed by reason of the exchange referred to in the plaint, and that the plaintiff is therefore a landholder. He returned the plaints for presentation to the Reveune Court and against those orders the plaintiff has filed the present appeals.

(3.) The land in dispute was admittedly part of the Nuzvid Zamindari. The Village of Arugolam in which the land is situate appears to have been granted as Mokhasa in 1747 by the then holder of the Zamindari Jagannatha Appa Rao. The original grant has not been produced but the terms of the grant can be gathered from Ex. I which is an extract from the Inam Register. The Inam is classed as personal Inam. The Ayakat is said to be 1781-85, Porambcke 542-54 and the Inams 50 acres 91 cents. Under the column of the description of Inam, the entry is Bbata Vritti. The original grantees were Desapandyas. It is admitted before us that Desapandyas were the persons who were doing the duty of collecting the revenue. Under the heading of tenure, the entry is "The tenure is Ghaturbhagam, now also settled on the same tenure, on produce 450-0-0." The grant is said to be hereditary by prescription and is said to have been granted by Jagannatha Appa Rao in Fasli 1156 or A.D. 1747. The East India Company acquired the Government of the Circars in 1768, and the grant therefore was one made not only before the Permanent Settlement, but before the acquisition by the Company of the Government of the Circars. "Chaturbhagam" is defined in Wilson's Glossary as the fourth part of the annual crop received by Government from the holders of certain alienated lands. In Sri Rajah Sobhanadri Appa Rao Bahadur V/s. Sri Raja Venkatanarasimha Appa Rao Bahadur (1920) M.W.N. 639 the tenure known as Mokhasa has been defined as one which is created by au assignment of village or land to an individual either rent free or at a low quit rent on condition of service.