RAM CHARAN Vs. RAMADHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a defendant's appeal arising out of a suit for the possession of a house situated in village Alauddinpur which is close to the town of Kanauj in the district of Farrukhabad. The plaintiff respondent is the proprietor of 5/6 share in this village and is its lambardar. The defendant was a ryot in the village and occupied the disputed house. On or about 16 8-1936, defendant 3 sold the house to defendants 1 and 2. In June 1940, defendants 1 and 2 sold that house to defendants 4 and 5. On 8-12 1948, the plaintiff brought a suit from which this appeal arises, alleging that Alauddinpur was an agricultural village and the ryot in it had no right to transfer by sale any house. He contended that the two sales aforesaid were null and void in the eyes of law and he was entitled to the possession of the house.

(2.) The defence was that Alauddinpur which is situated between the towns of Kanauj on the one hand and Makrundnagar on the other is not an agricultural village and that, at any rate, there is a custom in that village according to which the ryots have full rights in their houses and that they are at liberty to sell towhomsoever they like.

(3.) The learned Munsif of Kanauj decided in favour of defendants and dismissed the suit. In appeal the learned Civil Judge, by an exhaustive judgment in which he has examined the evidence with care and ability and discussed the law with thoroughness, disagreed with the findings arrived at by the trial Court. He held that Alauddinpur was an agricultural village and that on a critical review of the documentary evidence adduced by the defendants the custom was not established. In the result he allowed the appeal and decreed the suit. The defendants came in appeal to this Court.