Judgment

HEDGE, J. :- This appeal has been brought by the Ist defendant in O. S. No. 210 of 1958 on the file of the Ist Additional Judge, City Civil Court, Hyderabad. That was a suit brought by the Ist respondent-plaintiff for possession of the suit property. That suit was dismissed by the trial Court but in appeal the High Court of Andhra Pradesh reversed the decree of the trial Court and decreed the plaintiff s suit for possession. Thereupon this appeal has been brought after obtaining a certificate under Article 133 (1) (a) of the Constitution.

2. The subject matter of the suit is a piece of land in Himayatnagar measuring 2856 sq. yards. The plaintiff s case is that he purchased this land from one Jamsheer Khan with other plots in the vicinity under two sale deeds marked Exhs. P-2 and P-3; thereafter he was in possession of the same; when he was in possession, the second defendant trespassed into the said property and took possession of the same, thereafter he illegally sold the same to the Ist defendant. The defendant denied the plaint allegations. They denied that the plaintiff had any title to the suit property or that he was in possession of the same at any time. On the other hand they pleaded that the second defendant who had acquired title to the suit property by adverse possession had sold the same to the 1st defendant in the year 1946.

3. The trial Court came to the conclusion that the plaintiff has not established his title to the suit property. It also held that the plaintiff has not satisfactorily proved that he was in possession of the suit property at any time. In view of those findings it thought that it was not necessary to go into the defendant s plea of adverse possession. In the result it dismissed the plaintiff s suit. In appeal the High Court agreed with the trail Court that the plaintiff has not proved his title to the suit property. It rejected the plea of the defendants that they have perfected their title to the suit property by adverse possession. But differing from the trail Court it came to the conclusion that the plaintiff was put into possession of the suit property by his vendor Jamsheer Khan Sahab in about the year 1930 and he was in possession of the same till about the year 1945, when the second defendant trespassed on the same and took possession of it.

4. It view of the concurrent finding reached by the trail Court and the High Court that the plaintiff has not proved his title, that question was not reopened in this Court. The finding of the High Court that the defendants have not established their plea of title by adverse possession was challenged though feebly. It was contended before us that the plaintiff who based his suit on title and prior possession having failed to establish his title, his suit has to fail. Further the finding of the High Court that the plaintiff was in possession of the said property between 1930 to 1945 was also assailed before us.

5. The appellant claims that he came into the possession of the suit property on the strength of the sale deed executed by the second defendant in his favour on 1-10-1946. The suit from which this appeal arises was initially instituted on the original side of the High Court of Hyderabad in the year 1949. Therefor to establish his claim of title by adverse possession the 1st defendant must primarily depend on the fact that the second defendant was in possession of the suit property for a period of over nine years before he sold the same to him. Though the second defendant filed a written statement supporting the case of the 1st defendant and though he was present at the time of hearing on several occasions, he was not examined as a witness in this case to support the plea of adverse possession put forward by the defendants. No explanation is forthcoming for his non-examination. This circumstance goes a long way to discredit the defendant s plea of adverse possession. The 1st defendant s evidence as regards adverse possession is of very litt