MANBAHAL RAI Vs. RAM GHULAM PANDEY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Much as I regret that the defendant, who has absolutely no title to remain in exclusive possession of the plot in dispute, succeeds in the present litigation. I cannot but affirm the decision of the lower appellate Court in this case.

(2.) The dispute between the parties centers round a plot of abadi land which was once the site of the house of one Khudi, who was a ryot in the village. On Khudi's death there was a race between the plaintiffs-appellants and the defendant- respondent for possession of that plot of land. The defendant succeeded in securing a license to build a house, on payment of nazrana from one Shujaat Ahmad Khan, who owns a one-anna share in the village, on the 29 August 1921. About three weeks after that date, viz., on the 23 of September 1921, the plaintiffs-appellants were given a license to build by other cosharers of the village who owned the remaining 15-annas share in the village. After being armed with the license the plaintiffs wanted to build a house over the site in dispute, but they were unable to do so, as the defendant had already secured possession of the land and commenced to build a house. This led to the institution of the present suit by plaintiffs-appellants for possession of the site by demolition of the walls newly built by the defendant, and for an injunction restraining him from making any interference with the plaintiffs right to build a house over the site in dispute.

(3.) The defence to the suit was that the plaintiffs were not entitled to eject the defendant who himself was building under a license granted to him by one of the co-sharers of the village.