Judgment

Fazl Ali J.- These appeals are directed against the judgment & decree of the H.C. of Judicature at Fort William in West Bengal, confirming a decision of the President of the Calcutta Improvement Tribunal, which modified an award of the first Land Acquisition Collector of Calcutta, made under the Land Acquisition Act in respect of the acquisition of two premises, which may conveniently be referred to as Nos. 140 &141, Cotton Street.

2. In order to understand the points of contest between the various claimants to the compensation awarded in the case, it seems necessary to refer to certain facts showing how they came to be interested in the premises which are the subject-matter of the land acquisition proceedings. The premises belonged at one time to one Sewanarayan Kalia, & afterwards they became the property of a deity, Sree Sree Iswar Gopal Jieu Thakur, installed by Sewanarayan Kalia at Chinsurah in the district of Hooghly. Sewanarayan, who had three wives, died in 1836, leaving behind him his third wife, Muni Bibi, two daughters by his predeceased wives, these being Jiban Kumari & Amrit Kumari, & a mistress named Kissen Dasi. On 23-8-1836, these persons executed a deed of