KIRAN CHANDRA ROY Vs. SRINATH CHAKRAVARTI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal by the plaintiffs against the judgment of the Officiating Subordinate Judge of Faridpur, dated the 28 July 1924, reversing that of the Munsif of the 2nd Court at Bhanga, dated the 17 March 1924.

(2.) The appellants brought the suit under Section 158 of the Bengal Tenancy Act for the assessment of fair and equitable rent for certain lands appertaining to their zemindari, Touzi No. 5557 of the Faridpur Collectorate in the possession of the defendants and also for arrears of rent for the years 1326 to 1329. In the course of a record-of-rights the lands in suit were recorded as brahmottar Prankrishna Bhattacharji liable to assessment with fair and equitable rent. The present claim of the plaintiffs was based on the said entry in the record-of rights.

(3.) The defence of the Defendants Nos. 1 to 14 was that the lands in suit appertained to brahmottar Prankrishna Bhattacharji, that these lands were enjoyed as such by the grantee and his successors from before the Permanent Settlement and that in execution of a decree, dated 1879, against a successor of the original grantee, the lands in suit were sold as rent- free brahmottar in 1882 and were purchased by Defendants Nos. 6, 7, 8 and 9. The defendants alleged that the purchasers were all along in possession of the lands as rent-free brahmottar without any payment of rent to the plaintiffs.