MADHU SUDAN MAHATO Vs. MIDNAPORE ZEMINDARI CO

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal by the defendants in a suit for confirmation of possession of land on declaration of title, or, in the alternative, for assessment of fair and equitable rent thereon. The subject-matter of the litigation is a large tract of land in Mauza Brahmandia in Parganah Sildah. The plaintiffs claim to have acquired proprietary interest as well as several subordinate rights in the village, and their case is that the defendants, though they are their tenants only in respect of the lands comprised in Schedule ka to the plaint, have set up an unfounded claim to the other lands of the village, on the basis of a lease granted in their favour by one Natabar Datta on the 27th July 1901. The Subordinate Judge has held that this lease was fraudulent, illegal and invalid, and, that, independently thereof, the defendants had no title to the lands of the village other than those included in Schedule ka . The defendants have appealed to this Court against the decree of the Subordinate Judge.

(2.) The suit was tried in the Court below along with 395 other suits which related to various lands situated in one or other of 165 Mouzas included in Parganah Sildah. The evidence, oral and documentary, is extremely voluminous, and the paper-book which has been placed before us, has been prepared apparently on the assumption that an appeal had been preferred to this Court in each of the 398 suits. As a matter of fact, the appeal before us relates to only one of these suits, and we are informed that the appeals in the other suits are pending before the District Judge, as the value of the subject-matter in each of those cases does not exceed Rs. 5,000. The evidence relevant for the determination of the matters substantially in controversy in this appeal is comprised in a relatively small compass; and the questions at issue are by no means complex or difficult of solution.

(3.) The defendants set up a two-fold title to the lands in dispute, namely, first, a title under the lease granted by Natabar Datta on the 27th July 1901, and secondly, a pre-existing tenancy right, called Mandali right, independent of the lease. It will be convenient to investigate separately the validity of the two titles just mentioned.