SREEMANTHU RAJA YERLAGADDA Vs. RAJULAPATI SOMAYYA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal from a decree, dated the 26th November, 1914, of the High Court at Madras, which affirmed a decree, dated the 22nd November, 1912, of the Subordinate Judge of Masulipatam, by which the suit had been dismissed.

(2.) The plaintiff is a zamindar, and he brought his suit on the 3rd of April, 1910, for a declaration that certain lands within his zamindari in the village of Ayyanki, in the Kistna District, of which the defendants were in possession, were his private lands within the meaning of the Madras Estates Land Act, 1908 (Madras Act I of 1908), in which the defendants had no right of occupancy ; for the ejectment of the defendants from those lands, and for mesne profits. The defendants resisted the suit on the ground that the lands in question were ryoti lands within the meaning of the Act, and that they had in them rights of occupancy and were not liable to be ejected by the civil Court.

(3.) As denned by Madras Act I or 1908, private Jand means:- The domain or home-farm land of a landholder by whatever designation known such as kambuttam, khas, sir or pannai.