BENI PEESHAD KOERI Vs. CHATURI TEWARY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These appeals arise out of suits, which were brought by the appellant in her character as landlady against 26 of her tenants, claiming as against them possess of certain land on a declaration of her title there to as her khast land and in the alternative, should the Court be of opinion that she was not entitled to khas possession, rent might be assessed on the land in question.

(2.) It appears that the laud In respect of which these suits were brought was land, which had accreted in consequence of a river retreating from the village, which forms part of the plaintiff's estate.. It has been proved in the evidence that in the year 1887 the river was some 3 or 4 russis distant from the village and that at the time the suit was brought it was some miles distant from the village, the land having grown up between the year 1887 and the time the suit was brought. In respect of a certain portion of the land in question there is no dispute as to possession, because it is the plaintiff's case that that land was settled with the tenant defendants and that they have paid rent in respect of their occupation thereof; and that part of the land, which has been settled with the tenant defendants and which had been cultivated by them, has been described in the case as the lagan land. The portion of the land, to which the dispute relates, is what has been called the wasilat land, which had accreted later to the lagan land. "With respect to that the tenant defendants claimed that it was a reformation on some older land of their own and that they were entitled to it, while the plaintiff alleges that she is entitled to it as her zirat land.

(3.) The learned Judge, who heard the cases in the Lower Court, came to the conclusion that there was a presumption under Section 20 of the Bengal Tenancy Act that the tenants had acquired occupancy rights in the lagan land by having held it for a period of twelve years or more. He then thought that they were entitled to occupy the wasilat land, which had accreted to the lagan land and he fixed a rent in respect of that wanlal land.