Judgement

VENKATARAMA AYYAR J.: The appellant is the Mahant of a religious institution known as Rajgunj Asthal in Burdwan, and the suits out of which the present appeals arise, were instituted by him to recover possession of various plots of land in the occupation of the defendants, or in the alternative, for assessment of fair and equitable rent.

It was alleged in the plaints that the suit lands were comprised in Mouza Nala forming part of the permanently settled estate of Burdran, and were Mal lands assessed to revenue, and that more than 200 years previously there had been a permanent Mokarrari grant of those lands by the Maharaja of Burdwan to the Rajgunj Asthal; that in the record of rights published during the settlement in 1931 they were erroneously described as rent-free, and that on the strength of that entry the defendants were refusing to surrender possession of the lands to the plaintiff. It was accordingly prayed that a decree might be passed for ejectment of the defendants, or in the alternative, for assessment of a fair and equitable rent.

2. The defendants contested the suits, and pleaded that the lands were not Mal lands comprised within Mouza Nala, that they did not