KALAP CHAUDHURI Vs. SITAB CHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal under the Letters Patent from the judgment and decree of Wort, J., reversing the judgment and decree of the Subordinate Judge of Shahabad. The facts of the case may be shortly stated thus: One Bishwanath had a non-transferable occupancy holding of 3.85 acres which he transferred on 31st January 1907 to one Rajnath.

(2.) Subsequently Rajnath transferred portions of the holding to various persons including the ancestors of the defendants. In this appeal we are concerned only with the land which was transferred to the ancestors of the defendants and which is about 18 cattas in area. It appears that on 1 November 1917 one Har Prasad Das the predecessor-in-interest of the plaintiff who was admittedly the 16 annas landlord of the village obtained a rent decree against Bishwanath the original tenant, and in execution of the decree, the holding was sold on 11 April 1918.

(3.) On 8 October 1918 Har Prasad obtained dakhaldehani. On 8 May 1923 the plaintiff having succeeded to the interest of Har Prasad brought the suit out of which the present appeal arises, for the ejectment of the defendants. The suit was decreed by the Court of first instance but dismissed on appeal by the Subordinate Judge. The learned Subordinate Judge held that the entire holding having been transferred in the year 1907, it must be assumed that it had been abandoned by the tenant and that being so, the relationship of landlord and tenant had ceased to exist as between Har Prasad and Bishwanath and the decree obtained by the plaintiff against the original tenant was a nullity and therefore not binding upon the defendants. The learned Subordinate Judge further held that the defendants having been in adverse possession of the disputed land for more than 12 years had acquired a good title to the land which was not affected by the decree obtained by the landlord against the original tenant. On these findings the learned Subordinate Judge reversed the decision of the Munsif and dismissed the plaintiff's suit.