S.C.Prasad, J.

1. This is the plaintiffs appeal against the judgment of the Additional Subordinate Judge of Ranchi. His claim for partition of the properties mentioned in the plaint has been dismissed by the learned Subordinate Judge on the ground that the present suit was barred by res judicata, inasmuch as one of co-sharers, who is defendant No. 15 in this suit, had, in 1927, filed a suit for partition of the same properties against the same persons or their predecessors-in-interest, who were co-sharers in the properties.

That suit was decreed on compromise on the 5th January, 1929. A preliminary decree was drawn up in accordance with the terms of the compromise which were that the partition was to be affected according to the shares claimed by the parties leaving the question of determination of raiyati rights claimed by some of the defendants in some of the lands, open to be decided by another suit. It was stipulated that at the time of the final decree, the raiyati lands will be allowed to remain in possession of those who were already in possession and as far as possible those raiyati lands should be allotted to those persons. After the preliminary decree, a commissio