1957 Supreme(Raj) 82
Rajasthan High Court
Wanchoo C.J. & Modi, J.
Madanlal - Appellant
Versus
Durgadutt - Respondents
D.B. Civil Regular 1st Appeal No. 28 of 1953
Decided On : April 30, 1957
Chandmal and M.P. Sharma, for Madanlal; Dashrathmal, for Nathmal, Badriprasad and Kedarprasad; Hastimal, for Bajranglal Gulabchand
Headnote:(a) Evidence Act, sec, 5 --Pattas—Secondary evidence—Value.(b) Evidence Act, sec. 13—Recitals in documents—Evidentiary value.(c) Limitation Act Arts. 142 and 142— Scope and applicability.
2. The dispute between the parties relates to two plots of land situated in the town of Churu, these plotes being adjacent to each other. The plaintiffs case briefly put was that his ancestors Rambhagatdas Jokhiram had purchased these two plots in Svt. years 1907 and 1924 and had obtained two separate pattas for each of them. The land purchased in Svt. 1907 is marked A and that purchased in Svt. 1924 is marked B in the site plan (Ex. P~l) produced by the plaintiff along with his plaint. It may be mentioned at once that plot A was admittedly in the possession of defendants, respondents, Bajranglal and Gulabchand, and plot B of defendants Nathmal and his brothers at the date of the suit. According to the plaintiff, he is a resident of village Bisau and has been living in Bombay in connection with his business there, and so he left these plots, and a shop (with which we are not concerned), under the care of Nagarmal Madanchand Chowdhari whom he had sometime later appointed as his aam-mukhtar. The plaintiffs case is that Sheobux Rai, father of defendant? respondents, Nos. 1 and 2, being some sort of relation of Nagarmal Madanchand, had obtained from the latter an oral licence to use these plots for purposes of stacking fire-wood and preparing cow-dung cakes etc. and he was thus in temporary use of the plots in question though the exact period for which he was in such possession is not disclosed. It is alleged that after some time Sheobuxrai expressed a desire to purchase these plots but the proposal did not materialize because the plaintiff had asked for a higher price than what Sheobuxrai was prepared to offer, and this annoyed Sheobuxrai, and so, it is said that he entered into a conspiracy with defendants Nathmal and his brothers on the one hand and defendants Bajranglal and his brother Gulabchand on the other, and put Nathmal and others in possession of plot B and Bajranglal and Gulabchand of plot A, and it is further alleged that Sheobuxrai did so because defendants Nathmal and his brothers were his close relations and Bajranglal and Gulabchand were the Munims of defendants Nathmal and others. The plaintiffs case further was that as the original pattas had somehow been lost and were missing, he applied in Churn Tehsil for new pattas some time in 1945 but his player was opposed by Sheobuxrai as also Nathmal and his brothers and Bajranglal and Gulabchand as a result of which by an order of the Tehsildar dated the 27th April, 1951, he was directed to have his right established in a civil court. Consequently, the plaintiff instituted this suit in the court of the Civil Judge, Churu, on the 20th October, 1951, in which he has valued these plots at Rs. 7000/-, The other defendants Ratilal and others are relations of the plaintiff and were impleaded merely as pro forma defendants. Defendants Sheobuxrai allowed the suit to proceed ex parte against himself, and the two sets of contesting defendants resisted the suit. It is unnecess