SHEONANDAN SINGH Vs. JEONANDAN DUSADH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal arises out of a suit brought by the Plaintiff zemindar to recover possession of 1 1/2 bighas of land which the Defendant claimed as his Chowkidari Chakran land. On the findings of fact in the lower Appellate Court there is now no room to question the identity of the land or of the Defendants right to occupy it and the appeal is argued before us solely on the basis that the chowkidari register kept under Reg. XX of 1817 is not admissible in evidence. The case of Jarao Kumari V/s. Lalonmoni 18 C. 224 at p. L.R. 17 I.A.145, where their Lordships of the Judicial Committee considered the evidential value of the statements of the amins made upon maps and thakbust chittas, has no bearing on the present case.

(2.) The question here is was the entry of the situation and boundaries of the chakran land made in the register an entry in a public register made by a public servant in the discharge of his official duty within the meaning of Section 35 of the Evidence Act or "was it an entry made in the ordinary course of business within the meaning of Section 32(2) of the Evidence Act. Now it is objected that the entry of the situation and boundaries of the chowkidari chakran land in a register kept under Keg. XX of 1817 was not part of the official duty of the Daroga who presumably made the entry, inasmuch as under that Regulation only a personal roll of the chowkidars had to be kept and it has been hold, that Section 35 does not extend to entries which a public officer is not expected to and is not permitted to make [see Ali Nasir V/s. Manik Chand 25 A. 90.].

(3.) There is some force in this objection because the Regulation does not impose any duty on the Daroga of keeping a register of chowkidari chakran lands, but there is nothing to show that the local authorities did not expect the Daroga to make such, entries and the fact that they were uniformly made in every instance goes far to show that he was permitted to make them.