RAM NATH SINGH Vs. GAJADHAR LAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This was a suit for possession of groves standing on certain plots. The suit has been decreed as to possession by the Court below, but remanded on the question of damages.. The defendants have come up in second appeal.

(2.) Two pleas have been urged: (1) that the sale deed of 1888, which forms the basis of the plaintiff's title to Plots Nos. 2876, 2877 and 2883, was invalid for want of registration; (2) that the findings of the lower appellate Court do not warrant its awarding to the plaintiff the trees of Nos. 2903 and 981.

(3.) As regards the first point the sale-dead in question was for a sum of Rs. 32 only. The transfer could, therefore, be made either by a registered sale-deed or by delivery of the property. The Court below holds that the registration was unnecessary as the plaintiff was already in possession of the property under a mortgage. This view is supported by the ruling of the Madras High Court in Muthukaruppan Samban V/s. Muthu Samban AIR 1915 Mad 573. In that case the learned Judges held that if there was oral sale of the properties (and the same would apply to an unregistered sale), the fact that the vendee was already in possession would not render the sale invalid if the vendor, by appropriate acts or declarations, converted the possession of the vendee as mortgagee into one as purchaser.