ZINGGA MOHAN DHIWAR Vs. RAMCHANDRA SAKHARAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a revision by the defendant against the decree passed against him by the Judge, Small Causes at Sakoli, in a suit brought by the landlord of his village for Rs. 10 as the price of manure from the defendant's cattle. The plaintiff landlord alleged that the defendant was a thalwa i.e., non-agriculturist resident of the village and according to the wajib-ul-arz of the village, the landlord is entitled to the manure from the cattle of a thalwa in the Tillage.

(2.) THE defendant denied the plaintiff's claim. According to him, be was a sub-tenant and not a thalwa. He cultivated lands of others either on rent or on batai contract and the landlord was not therefore entitled to the manure from his cattle. He also contended that the suit was excluded from the jurisdiction of the Small Cause Court under Article 18 of Schedule 2, Provincial Small Cause Courts Act. The quantity and the price of manure were also disputed. The lower Court overruled the defendant's contention on the point of jurisdiction. It held that the defendant was a thalwa and not a subtenant. The claim of the plaintiff was decreed for Rs. 6 i.e., the value of three cartloads of manure at the rate of Rs. 2 per cart.

(3.) ACCORDING to the wajib-ul-arz all cattle in the village are entitled to free grazing in the banjar land in the village. The banjar land in the village belongs to the landlord though there may exist some communal rights over it, the cattle belonging to a thalwa i.e., one who holds no land in the village and does not therefore pay anything to the landlords is allowed to graze on the banjar land in the village, but the landlord by reason of his interest in the banjar land is given the right of receiving? manure from those cattle. The plaintiff's suit is in substance for receiving manure for the year-1944-45 which the defendant failed to deliver to him and as required by Order 20, Rule 10, Civil P.C., that manure is valued at Rs. 10 so that the Court could pass a decree for the value of the manure. The plaint is not drafted very artistically.