( 1 ) THE respondents filed on the 13th of October 1950, Special Civil Suit No. 142 of 1950, in the court of the Joint Civil Judge, Senior Division Belgaum, against the original appellants 1 and 2 and others, for recovery of possession with mesne profits of the lands comprised in Section Nos. 43/2 and 44/2 of Shindoli village, Belgaum Taluk. This basis of the claim made in the plaint was that the lands had been granted to the ancestors of the respondents as Mullagiri service inam lands in ancient times by one of the Badshahs of Bijapur for performance of Mullagiri services to the village community of Shindoli, that the lands were inalienable by the terms of the grant and that, therefore, the alienation thereof by the respondents grandfather Rajesaheb by way of sale on the 4th of February, 1914, in favour of Nadirsaheb Fakruddin Killedar, father of the original second appellant and father-in-law of the first appellant, was unauthorised, void and conveyed no title whatever. Among other defence raising questions toughing the character of the lands and nature and incidents of the tenure under which the same had been held by the respondents ancestors, the substantial d