DAMODAR DAS Vs. SECRETARY OF STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is a first appeal brought by R.S. Damodar Das, advocate, against a decree of the learned District Judge of Meerut in a land acquisition reference. The appeal is similar in some ways to F.A. No. 166 and F.A. No. 167 of 1935 decided at the same time by this Bench. But in the present case on page 7, line 44 appellant has stated: I do not ask for compensation for the land. I do not know if the land belongs to the Government.

(2.) In the other appeals the appellants had claimed that the land belonged to them. The present appellant bought the bungalow No. 162 in Meerut Cantonments on 21 November 1920 by a sale deed from Mt. Lalan printed on page 25, where it is stated at lines 20-23 that the vendor has sold the bungalow aforesaid together with the boundaries and rights and appurtenances relating thereto and rights and interests in electricity, etc., except the land belonging to Government.

(3.) In spite of these admissions the appellant has claimed in the lower Court on page 1 in addition to Rs. 38,000 for the bungalow, Rs. 2913 for trees, Rs. 10,000 for "cultivatory rights" and Rs. 12650 for lawns, garden, well, boundary walls, etc. He has also claimed that his house can be traced before 1836 and so Regulation dated 12 September 1836 will not apply to him. We have fully considered the Regulation in question in P. As. Nos. 166 and 167 of the 1935 judgment, and we refer to it for details. Briefly, we set out that by General Order of the Governor- General in Council dated 28 September 1807 no bungalows or quarters at any of the cantonments shall be allowed to be sold to, or occupied by, any person who does not belong to the army. If individuals not officers shall purchase, they must remove the materials, as the grounds within the limit of cantonments is to be kept and appropriated exclusively to the use of the troops.