(1.) The present parties have been engaged in litigation over the suit land ever since the year 1909, though the particular suit before us did not begin till 1916.
(2.) The question that arises is whether the plaintiff is a permanent tenant at a fixed quit rent or salami of Rs. 5 per annum as he contends, or whether he is only a tenant at will or annual tenant as the defendant Thakor Sahib contends. Or alternatively, if he is a permanent tenant, then whether the Thakor Sahib has any right to enhance the rent.
(3.) The land in question is in the village of Chaklasi in the Nadiad Taluka, and it forms part of a wants land belonging to the defendant, who is the Thakor of Sonipur. The present Survey No. is 1280; the old No. was 1238; and its area is six acres and six gunthas. The meaning of wanta is given in the first trial judgment in September 1917, and in effect it represents the portion (which is usually th) which was left in the possession of the Rajput Thakors by the Mahomedan invaders of Gujarat. The plaintiff's theory on which this suit was brought was that the land was originally given to the plaintiff's Brahmin predecessors-in-title in pasaita. That expression is also explained in the same trial judgment as meaning land given in charity to Brahmins, temples etc. It may be either rent free or subject to the payment of salami or quit rent.