The right of lateral support is only available to land in its natural and unburdened state. A structure on land can acquire a right to lateral support by prescription, but only if it has stood for the statutory period of twenty years.

JUDGMENT : - This is an appeal by defendant No.1 and it raises a short question as to the plaintiffs right to receive lateral support to the wall on his land from the adjoining land of the defendant. Both the Courts below have granted a mandatory injunction to the plaintiff because they came to the conclusion that the wall belonging to the plaintiff was entitled to receive lateral support from the defendants adjoining wall and that the ditch which had been recently dug by defendant No.1 on his land had materially affected this lateral support.

2. The property in question is situated at Rajpipla. The plaintiff owns a wada to the south of which is a public gutter and to the south of the gutter is another residential house of the plaintiff. The defendant owns his wada to the north of the plaintiffs wada and he too owns a residential house. In about 1945, the plaintiff built the house in question with its northern wall constructed on the extreme northern limit of his wada. In the present suit he alleged that beyond his wall the defendant had dug a ditch in 1946-47 and this ditch had diminished and materially affected the lateral support which his wall was entitled to receive from the land belonging to the defendant. That is the basis on which he claimed a mandatory injunction against the defendant calling upon him not to use the ditch and to close it at his cost.

It is this injunction which has been given by the Courts below. Both the Courts have found that the right which the plaintiff claims, and which in their opinion has been materially affected by the digging of the ditch, was a natural right available to the plaintiff in respect of his wall, and since this right had been impaired the plaintiff was entitled to the injunction.

3. It is common ground that the defendants land is on a higher level than the plaintiffs land and there is no dispute that the plaintiffs land, unburdened and in its natural state, would be entitled to vertical and lateral support by the subjacent and adjacent strata of the land belonging to the defendant. This position is not in doubt at all. Section 7, sub-cl. (b), Indian Easements Act deals with the right of every owner of immovable property to enjoy without disturbance by another the natural advantages arising from its situation; and ill. (e) to this sub-section deals with this right; the right of every owner of land that such land, in its natural condition, shall have the support naturally rendered by the subjacent and adjacent soil of another person. That is why I have just stated that the right of the plaintiffs land, which is on a lower level, to receive support naturally from the subjacent and adjacent soil of the defendant is not, and cannot be, disputed.

But the question is whether this right, which is regarded as a part of the natural rights of ownership, is available to a structure on open land. In the plaint it is not alleged that, by the ditch which has been dug by the defendant, the right vesting in the unburdened and natural land of the plaintiff to receive support from the defendants land has been impaired or diminished. The sole basis of the plaint is that the wall which has been built by the plaintiff on the extreme north of his land is entitled to receive support from the adjoining plot of the defendant, and it is this right of the wall to receive support that has been impaired and diminished.

The Explanation to ill. (e) under S.7 (b), Indian Easements Act is relevant on this point.

This Explanation shows that land is in its natural condition when it is not excavated and not subjected to artificial pressure, and that the "subjacent and adjacent soil" mentioned in this illustration means such soil only as in its natural condition would support the dominant heritage in its natural condition. In other words, the effect of the illustration read in the light of the Explanation is that the right which is referred to in S.7(b) is applicable only to the land in its unburdened and natural