A house connected with agricultural operations is hit by the provisions of Section 4(c) of the Bihar Consolidation of Holdings and Prevention of Fragmentation Act, 1956.

Ashwini Kumar Sinha, J.

Plaintiff-respondent first party is the petitioner in the instant case. This application is directed against ORDER :dated 22.6.1979 passed by the District Judge, Sitamarhi, in Title Appeal No. 81 of 1977 holding that the appeal as well as the suit (which was decreed by the trial court after the notification in question) stand abated. The Court of appeal below held that the dispute related to a portion of the homestead land on which no house stood and that it was also the plaintiff's case. The other finding given by the court of appeal below, on which the impugned ORDER :is based, is that the disputed plot came under the operation of the Bihar Consolidation of Holdings and Prevention of Fragmentation Act, 1956, (hereinafter referred to as the Act), as the definition of the word' 'land" includes homestead land also. The third finding given by the court of appeal below is that though it was true that the plaintiff's relief for declaration of title and recovery of possession was to be made after• adjudication that he was the adopted son but the plaintiff had not claimed that adjudication specifically in his plaint and, as such, such a declaration could not be made.

2. Upon the aforesaid findings the court of appeal below held that the appeal as well as the suit (already decreed by the trial court) stood abated.

3. Learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner has submitted that the disputed land includes a building structure existing thereto and, has contained that such a fact having been pleaded in the rejoinder filed by the plaintiff-petitioner in the court of appeal below, the court of appeal below should have held that the suit and the appeal were not hit by the provisions of section 4(c) of the Act, as contended by the defendant first party. The learned counsel for the petitioner, in all fairness, has placed' before me' his rejoinder filed in the court of appeal below and on the basis of paragraphs 5 and 6 of the same contended that if these' facts were there, the suit and the appeal were beyond the jurisdiction of the Consolidation authorities. It is desirable to quote paragraphs 5 and 6 of the rejoinder filed by the plaintiff-petitioner in the court of appeal below :-

"5. That the suit land is not a culturable or only a house-hold land rather it includes a building structure existing thereon.

6. That the Village Advisory Committee formed under the rule has not included the suit land in the list of lands to be brought under the consolidation and this is why there is no such notice of valuation of thy suit land U/s 10 (1) of the Consolidation Act and has not been brought on the record to the effect that the - suit land is under Consolidation operation."

On a perusal of the averments of facts in paragraphs 5 and 6 of the rejoinder filed by the plaintiff - petitioner, which is quoted above, it is abundantly clear that it is not the plaintiff-petitioner's case that there is a house On the disputed plot. What is stated is that the disputed portion of the plot includes a building structure. Even if it is meant, as contended by the learned counsel for the petitioner, that there is a building on the portion of the plot in dispute, the plaintiff-petitioner has not whispered that this building is unconnected with the agricultural operations.

4. It is well settled by now that an agriculturist may have more than one houses and it ham been held in the case of Ram Pratap Mahto & Ors. V. Diplal Mahto & Ors. (1979 Bihar Bar Council Journal 738) that only such a house which is unconnected with agricultural operation is saved under the Act and the provisions of Section 4(c) will not be applicable. But Such a house of an agriculture though it is a house, which is connected with the agricultural operation, is hit by the provisions of Section 4(c) of the Act. It is true, if there is any controversy with regard to the fact whether the house is connected with agricultural operation or not; in that case, it is in