MAHANTH JAGARNATH DAS Vs. JANKI SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an appeal from a decree, dated the 24th July 1917, of the High Court at Patna, which dismissed the plaintiff's suit to eject the defendant No. 1, Janki Singh, from certain land in Bihar. The suit was dismissed by the High Court on the ground that it had not bean brought within time. The land in question is small in extent and in value, bat the question of limitation involved in of importance in Patriots to which the Bengal Tenancy Act, 1885, as amended by the Bengal Tenancy (Amendment) Act, 1907, applies.

(2.) THE land in question is within the meaning of Section 116 of the Bengal Tenancy Act, 1885, proprietor's private land known in Bengal as khamar, nij, or nij jote, and in Bihar as ziraat, nij, sir or khamat. The plaintiff is the proprietor of the land, as was his predecessor in-title before him. Janki Singh held the land as a tenant under a lease which had been granted by the predecessor-in title of the plaintiff for a term of nine years, which expired on the 31st May l912. On the expiration of the term the plaintiff demanded possession of the land, but Janki Singh refused to quit and give up possession, hence the suit in which' this appeal has arisen. The suit was brought on the 5th December 1912 in the Court of the Munsif of Bhagusarai. in the District of Bhagalpur. The only question which it is now necessary to consider is---Was the suit brought within time ? That question depends on whether the period of limitation applicable in this case is that preseribed by Article (1)(a) of Schedule III of the Bengal Tenancy Act, 1885, which for suits " to eject a non-occupancy raiyat on the ground of the expiration of the term of his lease," is six months from the expiration of the term, or is that prescribed by the Article 139 of Schedule I of the Indian Limitation Act, 1908, which is twelve years from the determination of the tenancy.

(3.) THE fifth issue as fixed by the Munsif was, "whether any part of the claim is barred by limitation."