RAMANANDAN MARWARI Vs. RAMJIBAN MARWARI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal by the plaintiffs in a suit for declaration of title to portions of land marked ga and gha lying on the east and south, respectively, of a block marked kha on the map in suit. In 1915, plaintiffs first bought the block of land marked ka , which lies immediately ? to the south of the Bankura Road in the town of Purulia. In 1924 the plaintiffs bought land immediately to the south of ka from another vendor Indumati Dasya; and the claim in the suit was that this sale deed covered not only kha but also ga and gha . The lower Courts have concurrently held that under their purchase of 1924, the plaintiffs acquired no more than the portion marked kha and dismissed the suit.

(2.) The sale deed of 1924 is vague in several respects. As the lower Appellate Court has pointed out, it leaves it open to controversy what the starting point for the measurement of 25 feet 6 inches from west to east was intended to be. The sale deed gives the western boundary of the land conveyed as Amaro aponar paikhana, jataater rasta dui foot bade Paran Hal. darer palca prachir." The appellants would translate this as: Paran Haldar's pucca wall excluding the two-feet wide passage which is used for coming and going to our or your privies, while the respondents construction is: Paran Haldar's pucca wall, beyond the two feet wide passage for going and coming to our privy and yours.

(3.) What, little I know of Bengali does not enable me to say that either construction is impossible, though I must add that the construction adopted by the lower Appellate Court, rejecting the construction contended for by the appellants, seems on the very wording to be rather more reasonable than the other. The sale deed gave the length of the land conveyed from north to south as 23 feet and the area as "about one katha," The maximum area that could be contained in a quadrilateral measuring 25 feet 6 inches from east to west and 23 feet from north to south falls considerably short of one katha, viz. by between 1.5 and 1-6.