VIRABHADRAYYA GARU Vs. MAHALAKSHMAMMA GARU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) For the purpose of the few remarks that are necessary to dispose of this matter, the Board assumes, in accordance with the instructions of counsel, that the map before them is a map which is north and south, east and west, according to the square of the paper. So regarded, it appears that there were originally two estates, one known as the Gutala estate on the south and the Polavaram estate on the north of a river known as the Kovvada river. The river does not form the actual boundary of the estates, for in part it flows wholly through the Polavaram estate, a small strip of Polavaram being left to the south, but the above description is roughly accurate. The Kovvada river comes first from the north down to the south, and then due west to east, and runs through the greater part of its course in the Gutala estate. The Polavaram estate had another river running through, which was called the Pedrala river.

(2.) In 1829 it became of considerable consequence to try and arrange, as between these two estates, how the waters from these streams could be best adjusted for the purpose of irrigating the lands through which they flowed, and there would appear to have been an agreement made for that purpose. What the agreement was it is now unnecessary to determine, because of the events that have subsequently occurred. It is stated that its purpose was to enable the owner of the Gutala estate and the owner of the Polavaram estate respectively to erect permanent dams across their various rivers for the purposes to which reference has been made. The agreement is not in existence, and the circumstances that have happened since show that, even if it did contain the terms which it is alleged were there, the owner of the Gutala estate has completely lost the right to erect permanent dams across the bed of the Kovvada river. The Gutala estate ultimately got divided, and it is now in part called the Gutala estate and in part the Gangole estate, the Gutala estate being that part furthest to the east. The Gangole estate is the one which occupies the greater part of the bed of the river, and it is the one in respect of which the difficulty mostly arises, for in that estate there is a bend in the Kovvada river, off which there runs a stream called the Sagipadu stream, which, according to this map, fills the tanks and irrigates the land that lies to the south of the Kovvada river. The Gangole estate claimed that they were entitled to put a permanent structure across the Kovvada river, and they in fact appear to have attempted this from time to time and to have erected in 1911 a masonry structure called a valanka, that runs some 200 yards out into the river.

(3.) Their right being disputed, they started proceedings for a declaration claiming their right in these terms, and although they asked in their plaint for such other relief as the Court might grant, their clear plain claim was to erect permanent structures.