AIYALAM KESAVA CHETLI Vs. SECRETARY OF STATE FOR INDIA IN COUNCIL REPRESENTED BY THE COLLECTOR OF NORTH ARCOT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The plaintiff is the appellant. He sued the Secretary of State for India in Council (Respondent) for a declaration that the property specified in the plaint belongs to him and is not liable to penal assessment, for an injunction restraining the defendant from interfering with the property and for refund of the penal assessment levied. The case for the plaintiff is that the property belongs to him absolutely and was never the property of the Government, that he was served with a notice from the Revenue Divisional Officer dated 15th July, 1914 purporting to be issued under Madras Act III of 1905, levying a penal assessment of Rs. 10 and that the amount was wrongly collected from him on the 21st July, 1914. The defence is that the property was Nattam Poramboke which the plaintiff trespassed upon, that the Government is entitled to levy the assessment claimed and that the suit is barred by limitation.

(2.) Both the District Munsif and on appeal the Subordinate Judge held that the suit was barred by limitation as it was brought more than six months after the 15th July, 1914, the date of the notice of the Divisional Officer informing the plaintiff that an assessment of Rs. 10 was levied owing to his having encroached on Government property.

(3.) The question raised in this Second Appeal is whether the period of six months specified in Section 14 of the Madras Land Encroachment Act III of 1905 is to be computed from the date of the imposition of the assessment or the date when it is actually collected from him.