Judgement

Appeal from a judgment and decree of the High Court (March 26th, 1914) reversing a decree of the additional Subordinate Judge of Purulia.

The suit was instituted by the appellants claiming a declaration that under a patta granted to them in 1908 by the respondents Nos. 2 and 3 they were entitled to work and get the coal underlying lands included in the patta. They alleged that they had been dispossessed by the first respondent against whom they claimed mesne profits. Further relief, not material to this report, was claimed against the respondents Nos. 2 and 3. The first respondent by his written statement asserted his title to the mineral rights throughout his zamindari, but denied that he had interfered with the plaintiffs possession. The other defendants asserted their title and denied the alleged ouster.

The question arising upon the appeal was whether a grant made in 1791 by the predecessor in title of the first respondent to the predecessor in title of the second and third respondents carried the right to the subjacent minerals. The terms of the grant appear from the judgment of their Lordships.

Evidence of the alleged interference with their possession was given by