NALLAGONDA PEDDA CHENNA REDDI Vs. ASUPALLEE BUDDA REDDY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The plaintiffs are the appellants. Both the plaintiffs are minors. They are suing by their father, Chenna Reddi as their next friend.

(2.) The land in dispute belonged to their step-mother, Subbakka, by inheritance. She had only a life interest therein. She died issueless on the 21st August 1912. Two days before her death, she made a gift of the plaint lands to her minor step-sons, plaintiffs, evidently because she was on loving terms with her husband who was looking after the lands for her. The gift is, no doubt, invalid after her death as against the reversionary heirs of her father as whose property she inherited it. As I said, her husband was in possession on her behalf on the date of the gift-deed to her step-sons and he continued to be in possession during the two days which elapsed between the gift-deed and her death and for four days afterwards. Reading the plaint paragraphs Nos. 5 to 8 literally, it seems to me clear that the plaintiffs next friend considered himself to have been in possession after the date of the gift on behalf of his wife s donees (that is, his own minor sons, the plaintiffs) till he was dispossessed by the defendant about the 25th August 1912. The suit was brought within four months afterwards, namely, on the 23rd December 1912. The suit was not, however, brought under Section 9 of the Specific Relief Act, but relying on the title under the gift-deed (which became invalid against the reversioners after the plaintiffs step-mother s death) and mentioning also the continued possession of the plaintiffs next friend for about one week after the date of the gift-deed till the dispossession by the defendant. The defendant has been found by the lower Courts to be a pure trespasser (the title he set up as alleged reversioner having been found against), he not having denied in his written statement the allegations as to possession in the plaintiffs next friend for six days after the gift-deed and the dispossession on the 25th August as set out in "the plaint.

(3.) Taking it that the minor plaintiffs cannot make out a good title as against the reversioners of Subbakka s father s estate, I think that the principle of the decision in Ganapathi Mudali v. Venkatalakshminarasayya 25 Ind. Cas. 109 : (1914) M.W.N. 728, decided by Miller, J., and myself, applies to the facts and as the plaintiffs next friend had obtained and was in peaceable possession for several years before the deed of gift and continued in such possession for six days after the deed of gift (his possession on the date when the defendant dispossessed him being treated in the plaint as the minor plaintiffs possession and his dispossession being treated as the dispossession of the plaintiffs), he on behalf of his minor sons is entitled to recover back possession from the defendant who forcibly ejected him. Sundar v. Parbati 12 A. 51 (P.C.) : 16 I.A. 1 6 : 5 Sar. P.C.J. 448, their Lordships of the Privy Council say at pages 56 and 57 that their possession was lawfully attained in this sense, that it was not procured by force or fraud, but peaceably, no one interested opposing." It does not admit of doubt that they" (the persons so in pussession) are entitled to maintain their possession against all comers except the person who can plead a preferable title." It is not necessary for the purposes of this case to decide whether, if a person (who was dispossessed by the defendant) himself came into possession not peaceably but by using force against the real owner, such a person could maintain his possession against the second trespasser. For instance (to take an extreme case), A, the real owner, is forcibly dispossessed by B.B is in possession for three months and then B is forcibly dispossessed by C who continues in possession for 111/2 years. Can B successfully maintain a suit for restoration of possession against C on the strength of B s three months possession? The cases in Mustapha Sahib v. Santha Pillai 23 M. 179, Narayana Row v. Dharmachar 26 M. 514 : 13 M.L.J. 146 and Adinarayana Iyer v. Krishnan 15 Ind. Cas. 97 : (1912) M.W.N. 707, no doubt do go that length see, however, Nisa Chand Gaita v. Kanchiram Bagani 26 C. 579 : 3 C.W.N. 568 but as I said before, it is not necessary to decide that question as the plaintiffs got into possession in this case peaceably.