GOPI DAS Vs. MADHO LAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This and the connected Second Appeal No. 1425 of 1921 relate to a grove situate in the suburbs of Benares. In execution of a decree obtained against one Personam, this grove was sold by auction on the 1o February, 1919, and was purchased by Madho Lal. Madho Lal brought a suit for recovery of possession of the grove by virtue of this auction-purchase. A counter-suit was brought by the appellant, Gopi Das, in which he claimed possession of the grove, at least in respect of one-half of it. It appears that some disputes arose between Parsotam and Gopi Das before the auction-sale, and a case was instituted in the Criminal Court under Section 145 of the Criminal P. C.. That case was compromised on the 28 of May 1918, and in that compromise it was stated that Parsotam Das was to remain in possession of a part of this grove and Gopi Das was to remain in possession of another p Art. The Criminal Court decided the case under Section 145 of the Criminal P. C. in accordance with this petition of compromise, and declared that possession should be in the respective parties in the manner mentioned in the document until the question of title was settled in due course of law. After the auction-sale of Parsotam's rights, disputes arose between Madho Lal and Goopi Das and two cases were instituted in the Criminal Court, one under Section 145 of the Criminal P. C. and the other under Section 295 of the Indian Penal Code. In the case under Section 145 of the Criminal P. C., a compromise was filed on the 8 of December 1919, and in that compromise it was agreed that possession should be maintained in the mariner mentioned In the earlier compromise of 1918. After this Madho Lal brought his suit. The Court of first instance found, and this finding was confirmed by the learned Judge, that the grove originally belonged to one Raja Ram, that he sold half of it to Parsotam and the other half to Ratan Singh and that Ratan Singh's half was purchased by Parsotam, so that the ownership of the grove was in Parsotam. On that finding the suit of Madho Lal was entitled to succeed because he had stepped into the shoes of Parsotam. Gopi Das claimed to be the chela of one Chhotu Das, and he says that the grove was waqf property and that Chhotu Das was the manager of it, and, after his death, his widow was the manager and that after her death he, as chela of Chhotu Das, succeeded to it. This has been found against him. It has been found that he was not the chela of Chhotu Das.

(2.) On these findings the Courts below have decreed Madho Lal's suit and dismissed the suit of Gopi Das. Gopi Das has preferred these appeals and the question to be considered is what is the effect of the compromises referred to above. The learned Judge held that the two compromises did not operate to create any title in Gopi Das. The compromises were filed for the purposes of the cases under Section 145 of the Criminal P. C., and in proceedings under that section the question was only one of possession and it was the question of possession that was settled by those compromises. So far as the question of tit (Sic)e is concerned, the two documents, upon which reliance has been placed, cannot be treated as documents conveying title. If it had been intended that Parsotam wished to convey a part of the property to Gopi Das, he would have executed a duly stamped and registered document, but this was not done, and, even if the intention had been to convey the property, that intention was not carried out by a duly executed and registered document. The compromises, therefore, could not give the effect of conveying proprietary right to Gopi Das who, upon the findings of the Court below, has no title to the property.

(3.) Gopi Das claimed adverse possession, but it has been rightly held that, since his possession began only in 1912, it was not for such a length of time as would confer any proprietary right on him by reason of his possession. The compromises could, at the outside, amount to an admission of title but they could not be deemed to have the effect of estoppel. Therefore, it was open to Madho Lal to prove that title to the property was in Parsotam and that he by purchasing the rights of Parsotam had acquired the property.