LAWS(PVC)-1917-12-18

GANAPATHY MOOPPEN Vs. SUBBA NAYAKKAN ALIAS NARAYANASAMY NAYAKKAN

Decided On December 19, 1917
GANAPATHY MOOPPEN Appellant
V/S
SUBBA NAYAKKAN ALIAS NARAYANASAMY NAYAKKAN Respondents

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The plaintiffs-appellants are members of the Muppan caste and sued for a declaration, injunction and damages, because defendants, members of other castes, prevented their taking a marriage procession by the street along which it is, they alleged, customary to take them. The lower Appellate Court in the decree appealed against confirmed the District Munsif s decision, dismissing the suit in toto.

(2.) An attempt was made to support this decision on the ground that the lower Appellate Court erred in finding that the procession was prevented. It is true that it did not start and that its progress was not actually obstructed. But, as the lower Appellate Court found, it did not start owing to defendants hostile attitude and we agree that so far as plaintiffs proved, (sic) sufficient proof of actual obstruction or the use of violence being unnecessary.

(3.) The next question raised was whether the road, the use of which was disputed, is public. But the lower Appellate Court did not decide it, holding as we understand that plaintiffs could not in any case succeed in the absence of proof of special damage and dealing with the question of special damage on the sole ground that their procession could in fact have gone by another route and that the postponement of the marriage was not entailed. This, it is urged, is too restricted a view, firstly, because proof of special damage is not necessary, secondly, because the lower Appellate Court should have found that proof of it was forthcoming.