RAMA NAND Vs. SECRETARY OF STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is the plaintiff's appeal from a decision of the Subordinate Judge of Mirzapur, who decided that certain land in the possession of the plaintiffs, situate on the east side of a stream, by name, Jargo, was assessable to revenue. The plaint set out that the stream Jargo flowed between the villages Bagheri and Manikpur, and that each village was permanently settled. Paragraph 5, which was not admitted, ran as follows: That according to custom or usage prevailing in the locality, land cut away by fluvial action from one village and added or accreted to another becomes the property of the proprietors of the village to which such land has been so added and becomes part and parcel of such village.

(2.) Paragraph 6 alleged that according to the said custom or usage the proprietors of villages liable to be affected by fluvial action have to bear any detriment or loss or enjoy benefit or gain that may be caused by such fluvial action.

(3.) It was then said that more than 25 years ago the river Jargo began to cut away land from Manikpur and added much land to mauza Bagheri and that by about the year 1907 some 30 acres of land had been so added to Bagheri. It was alleged that in a suit between the proprietors of Manikpur and Bagheri it was judicially decided that the said area had become the property of the owners of Bagheri. The contention was then put forward that as the added land had become part of the village Bagheri, which had been the subject of the permanent settlement, the proprietors of Bagheri were not liable to be assessed to revenue on account thereof.