Mahapatra, J.

1. Plaintiff Kuju Collieries Ltd. with its head office in Bombay is the appellant. It brought a suit (Title Suit No. 24 of 1954) in the court of the Subordinate Judge, Hazaribagh, against five defendants for declaration that the plaintiff had title to the mining properties in suit under the indenture of lease executed in favour of Hari Charan Singh J. D. and Co. Ltd. and for recovery of possession of the same. It also asked for mesne profits for three years preceding the date of the suit, amounting to Rs. 20,000 with future mesne profits and alternatively, it also asked for refund of Rs. 80,000, which it paid as a part of the consideration money to defendants 1 and 2 for the lease and also the money spent by it in connection with the lease.

2. The plaintiffs case, in brief, was that defendant 2, Raja Bahadur K. N. Singh, proprietor of an estate known as Ramgarh Raj in the Hazaribagh District, who was in possession of his estate in which coal mines were situate, gave a mining lease to defendants 3 and 4 in respect of an area described in the schedule of the plaint, which was to expire on the 6th of April, 1950. The plaintiff-company was carrying on business and