Rajasthan High Court, Jaipur Bench
Ranawat, J.
Bhawaniram - Appellant
Versus
Seth Ram Narain - Respondents
C.Rev. No. 78 of 1952
Decided On : January 06, 1952
The term "compensation" is widely in scope than the terms mesne profits and it includes the latter, because in assessing the measure of compensation the court has to take into account the mesne profits of the property. Obviously a claim to compensation for keeping the plaintiff out of the possession of agricultural land includes a claim to mesne profits.
2. The facts of this case are that the plaintiff Seth Ramnath filed a suit against Bhawaniram in the court of the Munsif, Jhalrapatan, on the 11th December, 1951 alleging that he was forcibly kept out of the possession of land khasra No. 5 measuring 15 bighas in village Sheopur (Tehsil Patan) for the Svt. year 2007 and 2008 and the plaintiff thereby suffered a loss of Rs. 600/-. He therefore claimed an amount of Rs. 600/-from the defendant. The defendant raised a plea of jurisdiction and he claimed that the suit was exclusively triable by a Revenue Court under sec. 7, Schedule I, Group B — item No. 12 of the Rajasthan Revenue Courts (Procedure and Jurisdiction) Act, 1951. The learned Munsif after hearing the arguments of both sides held that the suit was for means profits and as such it did not fall within the scope of item 12, Group B, Schedule I of the said Act. The defendant has now come in revision and it has been urged that the court below was wrong in holding that the suit was one which did not come within the scope of item 12, Group B, Schedule I of the Rajasthan Revenue Courts (Procedure and Jurisdiction) Act.
3. The question which has been raised in this case is whether a suit for mesne profits by a tenant against a trespasser who has kept him out of the possession of the land would fall within the scope of item No. 12, Group B, Schedule I of the said Act.
4. Mesne profits has been defined in sec. 2(12) of the Civil Procedure Code as follows—
"Mesne Profits or property means those profits which the person in wrongful possession of such property actually received or might with ordinary diligence have received therefrom, together with interest on such profits,but shall not include profits due to improvements made by the person in wrong possession."
5. The word "compensation" has been analysed to include the following items in the Law of Damages and Compensation by C. Kameshwara Rao, 2nd Edition, Chapter 1, paragraph 9—
"(1) The actual pecuniary loss directly sustained, e.g., the actual amount of money wrongfully withheld, the pecuniary value of the property wrongfully detained.
(2) The indirect pecuniary loss e.g. the loss or profits, loss of credit, loss of reputation, loss of business etc.
(3) The value of time spent in establishing the right violated,
(4) The actual expenses or cost of suit.
(5) The mental suffering e.g. vexation, anxiety and worry.
(6) The bodily suffering produced by personal injuries e.g., pain end the consequent illness.
(7) The sense of wrong or insult felt by the sufferer on account of the act of omission being done with a malicious deliberate intention."
6. The author further notes that the element of injuries Nos.1 to 5 enumerated above are common to all kinds of wrongs and to these the element of bodily suffering has to be added in cases of personal violence. The learned Author in Chapter XIV, paragraph33 has further noted that mesne profits are in the nature of compensation to the plaintiff for the exclusive use of the land or other immovable property by the other party and that they are damages for the wrongful withholding of possession of the party entitled thereto. Cases of Midnapore Zamindari Co., vs. Kumar Naresh Narayan Roy(3) and Girish Chandra Lahiri vs. Shashi Shekhareswar Roy(4) have been referred to in this connection.
7. A person who is entitled to the possession of land, if kept out of possession by another, is entitled to recover mesne profits by way of compensation or damages under the Law of Torts. In accessing mesne profits the basis for the calculation is what the person in wrongful possession did
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