ADUSUMILLI SURYANARAYANA Vs. ACHUTA PETHANNA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a consolidated appeal from three decrees, dated the 9th October, 1913, of the High Court at Madras, which affirmed decrees dated the 4th March, 1912, of the District Judge of Kistna, by which decrees, dated the 18th April, 1911, of the Additional District Munsiff of Masulipatam, were set aside and the plaintiffs suits were dismissed.

(2.) The suits in which these appeals have arisen were brought on the 10th July, 1909, in the Court of the District Munsiff of Gudivada, and were suits of ejectment from agricultural lands situate within the Agraharam village of Korraguntapalem, in the Northern Circars of the Presidency of Madras. The plaintiffs are inamdars of the village, holding under an inam grant of 1373 from a Reddi King of the district. The defendants are agricultural tenants who, or whose predecessors-in-title, at various times within very recent years and before July 1908 were respectively let into possession by the inamdars under agreements for terms, which expired in each case before the suits of ejectment were brought. By these documents of tenancy the defendants or their predecessors-in-title agreed with the inamdars to quit possession of their holdings on the determination of the term for which the lands were let to them, and without claiming any Zeroyati right in the lands.

(3.) ln their written statements the defendants alleged that the Agraharam village is an estate within the meaning of Section 3 of Act I of 1908 (the Madras Estates Land Act, 1908), and in the alternative, and if the Agraharam is not an estate within the meaning of the Act, then the defendants alleged in their written statements that they or their predecessors in the holdings had been cultivating the lands long before the formation of the Agraharam, had acquired permanent rights of occupancy in the lands, and had enjoyed the lands with such rights to the present time.