GOPI KOERI Vs. MUSAMMAT RAJ ROOP KOER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The dispute in this appeal relates to plot No. 738 hhasra which is situated in Mauza Shukulpura outside the skirts of Benares City. The village Shukulpura was granted to Mussammat Asmedh Kunwar by the father of the plaintiff on the 9 of April 1889 by an agreement which provided that she was to hold the same in her possession and enjoy the profits thereof for her maintenance during her lifetime without any power of alienation.

(2.) While Musammat Asmedh Kunwar was so in possession of that village, she granted a perpetual lease of the plot in dispute to Gopal, Ganga and Gopi for a premium ofRs. 100 on an agreement that the lessees would pay her a rent of Rs. 12 per annum and be entitled to use the land for planting a grove, constructing buildings or for any other purposes they liked. On the strength of that lease a grove, consisting mostly of guava trees, was planted over the said land by the lessees and a ridge or mud wall was built around it for the protection of the trees.

(3.) The lease was granted on the 11 of May 1905. On the 16 of March 1918 Musammat Asmedh Kunwar died. The plaintiff as the successor-in-interest of her father, the original proprietor of the village, sues to eject the lessees from the land of the said grove and for mesne profits, contending that the lease in question became inoperative after the death of Musammat Asmedh Kunwar. Gopal and Ganga have -since sold their interest in the said grove to Gopi for Rs. 100 on the 12 of August 1916. The defence of Gopi was that the plaintiff had accepted the rent of the land in question since the death of Musammat Asmedh Kunwar, that the defendant had spent about Rs. 2,000 in making improvements over the said land, and that the plaintiff was not entitled to the relief claimed.