Judgement

Appeal (No. 11 of 1920) from a judgment and decree (November 15, 1916) affirming a decree (September 17, 1913) of the temporary Subordinate Judge of Cococanada.

The suit was brought by the respondents against the appellant for a declaration of the title of the plaintiff-respondent, the Raja of Vizianagaram, to an island in the Godavari River of about 1000 acres in extent, and for consequential relief. The river at the point in question was tidal and navigable, its bed being the property of the Government. The case made by the respondents was that land had been added by alluvion to a lanka which had been held to be an accretion in the Rajas riparian lands, and that subsequently the land had by action of the river become an island. The appellant by his written statement pleaded, (1.) that the lands in suit had been formed on the bed of a navigable river, and belonged to the Government, and (2.) that even if the lands in suit had been formed contiguously with any lands belonging to the plaintiff and in such manner as to be governed by the law of accretion, they nevertheless belonged to the Government as a vertical accretion to the bed of the river.

The following facts shortl