Judgement

Appeal (No. 23 of 1931) from a decree of the Chief Court of Oudh (January 3, 1930) affirming a decree of the District Judge of Hardoi (April 29, 1929), which reversed a decree of the Munsif of Shahabad (September 25, 1928).

The appeal related to a small plot of land in the town of Pihani in the Hardoi district, of which plot the respondent and his predecessors were proprietors. At the settlement in Oudh in 1864 the plot of land and a kachcha house thereon were occupied by one Ichcha Kori, whose family had rights of occupation. In 1916 Ichcha Koris surviving descendants executed a usufructuary mortgage to the first appellant, whose house adjoined the plot. Between 1924 and 1927 the appellants, who were brothers, demolished the house and erected a masonry thakurdwara, or Hindu temple, at a cost of about Rs. 40,000. In December, 1927, the respondent brought a suit in the Court of the Munsif claiming possession of the land, and for an order that the appellants should remove the materials of the thakurdwara, and that otherwise the respondent should have possession thereof. He alleged that Ichchas family had died out (which proved not to be the case), also that the familys righ