ABDUL JABBAR KHAN Vs. GULAB KHAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The plaintiffs-respondents are two sons of Amirali Khan and a grandson and three sons of Gajraj Khan. They sued for redemption of ten plots of land in Ulatu which had been held by Imambaksh, brother of Amirali and Gajraj, on the following allegations. Aliman, widow of Imambaksh, along with Amirali and Gajraj in 1902 gave in zarpeshgi plot Nos. 401 and 496 to Shaikh Abdul for the nine years, 1959 to 1967 S. or till repayment and Abdul was in possession till redeemed by plaintiffs in 1930. Aliman to whom the plots in suit including the two plots mentioned had been given as maintenance, gave zarpeshgi of them on 14th February 1905, to Abdul Jabbar Khan (ordinarily designated Jabbar), defendant- appellant 1 (whose son is defendant appellant 2) for Rs. 168-8-0 for a period of five years or (impliedly) till repayment thereafter, the sum of Rs. 18-12-0 beng kept back for payment of the rent of the holding by the mortgage for the five years.

(2.) Aliman died a year later and then her daughter Sajiban who was insane from her minority, succeeded her but Jabbar in collusion with the landlord's officers had the land entered in the record-of-rights in 1909 as raiyati in his own name. Sajiban died in 1918 a lunatic and the plaintiffs being her heirs redeemed the zarpeshgi of 1902 and their offer to redeem also the appellant's zarpeshgi of 1905 being refused, sued to redeem. The defendants denied that the lands belonged to Mirali Khan, father of Imambakhsh and his brothers Amirali, Gajraj and others, and alleged that Aibaksh, uncle of Imambaksh, gave the lands as maintenance to Aliman who mortgaged them to Jabbar and died a year later, whereupon the landlord resumed the lands and the zarpeshgi ceased to exist but Jabbar took raiyati settlement after paying a nazrana of Rs. 180, received a hukumnama on 12 August 1908, and maintained Sajiban at their house, and at the Settlement in 1909 his raiyati right was, in spite of a tanaza by Gajraj Khan, recorded, Sajiban assenting.

(3.) The defendants claimed occupancy right also by adverse possession from the date of the record-of-rights, denied that Sajiban was insane and that the plaintiffs were heirs of Sajiban and alleged that she died seventeen or eighteen years prior to suit. They also denied the zarpeshgi of Shaikh Abdul and the repayment in 1986 Section (1930). The record-of-rights finally published in 1911 shows appellant 1 as raiyat and in the column for "remarks" Shaikh Abdul in possession of plot Nos. 401 and 496 on the basis of the mortgage of 1902. The Munsif dismissed the suit holding that the defendants had acquired a right of occupancy by adverse possession and that the suit was barred by limitation.