ARUNACHELLA AMBALAM Vs. RGORR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) We have already given judgment as to the boundary question which arose between the villages of Karakudi and Sekkalakottai and have now to deal with so much of the appeals as relates to the claim of the Kottaiyur ryots to the Kudivaram rights in the Sekkalakottai village in which, we have decided, the suit lands are situated.

(2.) It is admitted that the suit village is one of the villages of the Sivaganga Zamindari, and, as such, the Zamindar is entitled to the melwaram rights in the village and it is not now suggested that he has been dispossessed of these melwaram rights. It is said, however, that the onus is on him to show that he was in possession of the Kudivaram rights within 12 years of suit. Now, as will abundantly appear from the Exhibits to which it will be necessary to refer, the suit land was waste land or jungle and mostly forest; and with regard to land of this character in a Zamindari the presumption is that the Zamindair owns the Kudivaram as well as the melwaram rights, and therefore, the onus is on the ryots of the village to show, if they can, that the Kudivaram right is vested in them.

(3.) Then His Lordship proceeds to discuss the evidence on the point.