PROVINCE OF MADRAS, REPRESENTED BY THE COLLECTOR OF EAST GODAVARI Vs. SRI RAJAH UPPALAPATI SURYANARAYANESWARA JOGI JAGANNADHA RAJU GARU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These two appeals arise out of suits brought by the proprietors of the Gopalpur estate to establish their right to two lankas situated in the bed of the Vasishta branch of the river Godavari. The major appeal A.S. No. 58 of 1942 relates to what is alleged to be a re-formation of or accretion to, the Ralaramuni lanka adiacent to the zamindari villaee of Udumudi. This lanka lies between the seventh furlong of the 24 male and the fifth furlong of the 25 mile according to the mileage on the left bank of the river, and it is about thirty miles from the sea. A.S. No. 441 of 1?42 relates to the Beillamoudi lanka situated between the 28th mile and the sixth furlong of the 28 mile that is to sa V/s. lower down the river. The evidence is to a large extent common in both anneals and the general questions arising are also common. I will deal first with the major appeal A.S. No. 58 of 1942 and thereafter consider the special features of the Ballampudi case.

(2.) The village of Udumudi belonging to the Gopalpur estate is situated on the left bank of the Vasishta Godavari more or less opposite to two Government villages the northernmost being Nadupudi and the southernmost Pedamallam. The river flows roughly north to south. The mileage along the banks of the river is reckoned from the Dowleswaram anicut which goes right across the river Go-davari just before the various branches of the delta divide. The land claimed by the Gopalpur estate consists of a roughly triangular island with its apex in the south-eastern comer and its eastern side running more or less parallel to and within a furlong of the eastern bank of the river. This island consists of a central portion which is now under cultivation and an outer fringe of sand planted with nanal or reeds the usual procedure in reclaiming a sand-bank from the river being to plant reeds to assist the deposit of fertile silt.

(3.) The island claimed by the plaintiffs lies roughly north of the site of the Balaramuni lanka as located in the earliest plan we have on record, namely, the survey of 1863. To the north of the site now in dispute there was in 1863 another lanka called Merka lanka. In 1863 the northern portion of the Balaramuni lanka belonged admittedly to the Gopalpur estate except for a small strip on the western side which was attached to the Government village of Nadupudi situated on the western bank of the river. The whole of the southern portion of this Balaramuni lanka was in 1863 attached to the Government village of Pedamallam which is also situated on the west bank of the river. Similarly with the Merka lanka the southern portion of the lanka was attached to the estate village of Udumudi but there was a strip to the west of this which appertained to the Government village on the western bank. We do not know on what principle this division of the lankas, which lie almost entirely in the eastern half of the river, was made. The original grant of the Gopalpur estate is not produced. The survey of 1863 does not indicate that any portion of the bed of the river, apart from these islands was attached to the Gopalpur estate. The position, therefore, in 1863 was that both to the north and to the south of the area now claimed to be part of the Gopalpur estate there were islands owned partly by the Government and partly by the estate, the portions belonging to the estate being those portions adjacent to the area now claimed. It may be mentioned that the extreme northern portion of the area now claimed actually overlaps to a small extent the southern extremity of the Udumudi Merka lanka belonging to the Gopalpur estate as it existed in 1863.