The presumption of ownership in favour of the person in possession is rebuttable, and the entries in the Jamabandis, though relevant, do not constitute conclusive evidence of title.

This second appeal by the defendants is directed against the judgment and decree dated 28th of February, 1967 of the District Judge, Manipur, who, on accepting the appeal of the plaintiffs and setting aside the judgment and decree of the trial Court dated 18-1-1963, decreed the suit of the plaintiffs for possession by partition of their one half share in the ingkhol in dispute.

2. The following pedigree table would be helpful in understanding the facts of the case:

3. The suit was founded on the allegations that the ingkhol in dispute had been acquired by Balaram Singh in the name of his elder son Tarpon Singh and that on his death it was equally inherited by his two sons Tarpon Singh and Rupa Singh in equal shares. The two plaintiffs represent the line of Rupa Singh, being his daughters, while the defendants are the heirs of Tarpon Singh. The two brothers, Tarpon Singh and Rupa Singh, had been in joint occupation of the ingkhol, each having constructed a house of his own on different parts thereof. After the death of their parents, it was alleged further, the two plaintiffs continued in the joint possession of the ingkhol together with the defendants. However, the defendants 1, 2 and 4 secured surreptitiously the mutation of the ingkhol in dispute in their own names, and that when the plaintiffs learnt about that development they requested the defendants for partition of the ingkhol. The defendants refused to do so and that left the plaintiffs with no option but to claim partition of the joint property in assertion of their right thereto.

4. The suit was resisted by the defendants who traversed the allegations of the plaintiffs that the ingkhol had been acquired originally by Balaram Singh or that he had done so in the name of his elder son Tarpon Singh. It was pleaded by the defendants that Balaram Singh had lived and died at Heisnam Leikai, which is now the south eastern portion of the land where the Ist Bn. of Manipur Rifles, Imphal, is housed, that after the war between Manipur and the British the two surviving sons (Tarpon and Rupa) of Balaram Singh were forced to vacate that property by the Government, and that they then took temporary shelter in the house of one Ayam Ibungobal Singh at Sawaijam Leirak, Moirangkhom, and lived there for a couple of years. During that period of two years. Tarpon Singh purchased the ingkhol now in dispute for himself from the father of Yumnam Natum Singh. In those days it was not customary to make purchases of immoveable properties by written instruments and as such this purchase was made orally but it was accompanied by delivery of possession. When, subsequently the system of pattas came into vogue, Tarpon Singh secured the registration of the ingkhol in his own name. This happened in the year 1898, by which date the survey had taken place in Manipur. Since that date, it was alleged further, it was Tarpon Singh during his lifetime and thereafter his sons who have been paying revenue regularly respecting the ingkhol. The ingkhol continued to be entered in the revenue records in the name of Tarpon Singh until the year 1960. Tarpon Singh, it was pleaded further, allowed Rupa Singh, his younger brother, to live in the ingkhol in dispute since he (Rupa Singh) could not afford to purchase a separate homestead for himself. The understanding reached between the two brothers was that Rupa Singh and the members of his family would quit the ingkhol when required to do so by Tarpon Singh. It was subject to the same understanding that Rupa Singhs daughters continued to reside in the ingkhol. The plaintiff No. 1 Thambal Devi, it was alleged, was divorced by her husband and so was forced to return to the ingkhol in dispute. She was, like her father, permitted to reside there along with her two sons as a mere licensee.

5. One technical objection raised by the defendants was that one of the two deceased daughters of Rupa Singh being survived by her two female children, Radhamani and Amusana, the suit