MT DHARICHHNA KUARI Vs. RAMYAD KUARI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These appeals which have been made analogous arise out of two judgments dated 20 September 1927 and 14 January 1928 respectively of the District Judge of Shahabad on appeal from decisions of two successive Munsifs of Buxar in batches of rent suits tried analogously. It will be convenient to begin by stating particulars of the suits and appeals. Mt. Dharichhna Kuari, brought 53 rent suits claiming rent from cultivating tenants to the extent of her share which was said to be 5 annas 16 karants in Sheo Bux Singh putti and 3 annas 2 pies 8 karants in Naunidh Singh putti in respect of the holding occupied by them alleged by her to fall in her estate of Gangbarar Sheo Bux Putty and Gangbarar Naunidh Singh putti. She impleaded the Maharaja of Dumraon on the ground that he claimed to be proprietor of the holdings as part of his estate Naubarar and she prayed for declaration of title as against him and recovery of rent as against the tenants.

(2.) The Munsif dismissed the suits and the District Judge modified that decision giving the plaintiff a declaration of title as against the Maharaja, but refusing her decrees for rent as against the tenants. Out of this decision appeals bearing Nos. between 440 and 492 are presented by the plaintiff and appeals bearing numbers between 877 and 1029 are by the Maharaja. In the other batch 31 suits were instituted by Raghunath Prashad Sahu and others claiming similarly that the holdings are in their estate Gangbarar Janubi putti Sheo Bux Singh and not in the Maharaja's estate of Naubarar and praying to realise rent from the tenants to the extent of the share of the plaintiffs, namely, 2 annas 8 pies in putti Sheo Bux Singh. As in the other batch the Munsif dismissed the suit and the District Judge modified that decision giving the plaintiffs a declaration of title, but refusing them decrees for rent. From this decision, appeals are preferred by Maharaja bearing numbers between 774 and 804 and appeals are preferred by the plaintiff bearing numbers between 1418 and 1448.

(3.) The general nature of the dispute which has been going on for some years is disclosed in the judgment of the District Judge who has summarised the history of the movements of the river Ganges and of the consequent successive formations of new estates in the earlier portion of his judgment. It is not necessary to go over all this ground again, but it should be noted that the estate Sheopur Diar Gangbarar was surveyed in 1839 and 1840 and the plots of land measured and numbered, the last plot at the southern extremity of the estate being plot No. 920 and the District Judge has held that in some of the suits all of the lands and the rest of the suits some of the lands lie outside the boundary of the estate Gangbarar as surveyed and fixed in 1840. Subsequent to 1840 several thousand bighas accreted on the south of this boundary and in 1862 a new estate was formed bearing the name Sheopur Diar Naubarar with a revenue of Rs. 1,104 and was settled with the proprietors of the existing estate Gangbarar. The accretion was measured and reported to be 2877 bighas and 10 kathas.