JUDGMENT

1. This is an appeal under Clause 15 of the Letters Patent from the judgment of Mr. Justice Panton in a suit for recovery of arrears of rent.

2. The plaintiff claimed rent at the rate of Rs. 22-1 per year in respect of four years from the 14th April 1913 to the 13th April 1917. The defendants pleaded that rent was payable at the rate of Rs. 12-2 per annum, The suit was instituted on the 21st April 1917 and was decided by the First Court on the 16th April 1918. The claim of the plaintiffs was founded upon a Kabuliyat executed by the predecessors of the defendants on the 19th April 1894. The rent payable thereunder was that claimed in the suit. The defendants contended that the kabuliyat was in contravention of Section 29(b) of the Bengal Tenancy Act. The Trial Court held that the defendants had successfully proved by the production of Road-Cess Return filed by the landlords on the 26th May 1885 that the rent was originally fixed at the rate of Rs. 12-2. Consequently, there was, prima facie, an increase of Rs. 9-15 by means of the contract of the 19th April 1894. This was plainly in contravention of Section 29. In these circumstances, from the decision of this Court in the cas