RAM KISHAN Vs. KARAM SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is the defendant's appeal against the decree of Mr. Hasan Irshad, Civil Judge, Bahraich, dated 31 August 1943.

(2.) The plaintiff, the sole zamindar of village Jamnaha Bhawanipur, filed a suit for recovery of possession of a site of a house in its hamlet Bhawanipur. He alleged that the defendant respondent Ramji Lal used to live in a house in the abadi of the hamlet Bhawanipur and when this house fell into ruins he sold it to the defendant Ram Kishan, the present appellant, for Rs. 50, contrary to the custom, without his permission and that the defendant appellant Ram Kishan had made certain constructions and those should be demolished and possession of site be given to him. In defence it was pleaded that Bhawanipur was an integral part of village Jamnaha Bhawanipur, that this village had ceased to be an agricultural village on account of a big market there and so the law applicable to agricultural villages was not applicable, that the owner of the house in that village had the right of transfer, that in any case the plaintiff could not recover possession because the sale had taken place with the knowledge and permission of the plaintiff himself and the plaintiff had realized zar-e-chaharum from him and while the building was in course of construction the plaintiff himself had encouraged him to make the constructions and by his conduct he was therefore estopped from asserting his title to the site.

(3.) The learned trial Court came to the conclusion that although Jamnaha Bhawanipur was not a town yet it was not a purely agricultural village on account of the existence of a fairly big bazar in Jamnaha, that the plaintiff has failed to show a custom of non-transferability of houses in the village and that the plaintiff was also estopped from asserting his right to the site, and the suit was accordingly dismissed.