Judgment

Das J. -- This is an appeal from the judgment of a Bench of the Bombay High Court (Sen and Dixit JJ.) delivered on 2-2-1917 in an appeal filed under S. 18, Bombay City Land Revenue Act II of 1876 against the judgment of the Revenue Judge at Bombay delivered on 27-10-1947 in a suit filed by the respondents, the Municipal Corporation of the City of Bombay and Madusudan Damodar Bhat, the then Municipal Commissioner for the City of Bombay, against the Collector of Bombay.

2. There is no substantial dispute as to the facts leading up to this litigation and they may be shortly stated. In 1865, the Government of Bombay, having decided to construct an Eastern Boulevard, called upon the Corporation of Justices of the Peace for the City of Bombay, the predecessor in title of the respondent Corporation, to remove its then existing fish and vegetable markets from the site required for the construction of the Boulevard. The then Municipal Commissioner Mr. Arthur Crawford, after whom the present municipal market was named, applied for the site set aside for the exhibition buildings on the Esplanade for the purpose of constructing new markets as the existing markets could not be removed u