The Competent Authority under the OLR Act had the jurisdiction to pass the order, and the Civil Court's jurisdiction was ousted.

JUDGMENT

D. Dash, J. - The Appellants, by filing this Appeal under Section 100 of the Civil Procedure Code (for short, 'the Code') have assailed the judgment and decree dated 06.04.2013 and 18.04.2014 respectively passed by the learned District Judge, Kendrapara in R.F.A. No.36 of 2010.

By the said judgment and decree, the Appeal filed by the unsuccessful Plaintiff, under section 96 of the Code, has been allowed and the right, title and interest and possession of the Plaintiffs have been declared whereby the present Appellants (Defendants) have been permanently restrained from entering upon the suit land and dispossess the Original Plaintiff, the predecessor-in-interest of these Respondents in demolishing his residential house and cowshed standing over it. With such declaration and injunction, the following however has been further indicated in the order:

'the prayer to declare the order dated 30.06.2001 passed in OLR Misc. Case No.6 of 1996 by Sub-Collector, Kendrapara as invalid is partly allowed.'

2. For the sake of convenience, in order to avoid confusion and bring in clarity, the parties hereinafter have been referred to, as they have been arraigned in the Suit. It may be mentioned here that these Appellants were the Defendant Nos. 2 and 4 and the Defendant No. 4 is the mother of Defendant Nos. 2 and 3.

3. The Plaintiff's case, in short, is that he is in possession of the land since the time of his ancestors to the knowledge of the Defendants and others in the village as the settled rayat. His father used to pay municipality tax, electricity dues etc in respect of the house over the suit land and after him, he is paying the same by obtaining the receipt thereof. In the year 1999, due to super cyclone, the house got raised to the ground and for the same, the Plaintiff had received the compensation. It is the further case of the Plaintiff that being in continuous possession of the suit land to the knowledge of the Defendants and general public for more than the statutory period, he has acquired title over the suit land by way of adverse possession. Considering this aspect, the Tahasildar had declared him to be the settled Rayat in a proceeding under section 9 of the Orissa Land Reforms Act (hereinafter called as 'the OLR Act') in OLR Case No.62 of 1988 vide order dated 27.05.1989, which has, however, been illegally reviewed.

It is stated that the Defendant No.1 being a shrewd man of the locality, filed a Suit bearing T.S. No.173 of 2001 claiming therein to have purchased the suit land from Defendant No.4 on 20.01.1984. This Plaintiff, being arraigned as a party in the said Suit, had advanced his claim over the suit property saying that the same had been recorded in the name of his ancestors in the settlement ROR of 1930 and that accordingly, the claim had also been made before the Settlement Authority. The record being prepared by the Settlement Authority, in so far as the possession of the suit land of the Plaintiff is concerned, rightly there has been noting to that effect in the remarks column of said record of right. The Plaintiff being a settled rayat having occupancy right over the suit land is possessing the same having his residential house over it.

The Defendant No.1 being clever then, however, did not pursue the Suit.

It is further stated that Defendant No.1 then setting up the Defendants 2 and 3 initiated a proceeding under section 23 of the OLR Act against him and others which stood numbered as OLR Case No.6 of 1996. It is alleged that without proper notice to the Plaintiff, that proceeding has been finalized in favour of Defendants 2 and 3. Having said all these above, projecting that order passed by the competent Authority in OLR Case No.6 of 1996 to have placed the right of occupancy of the Plaintiff over the suit land under thick cloud and to have triggered the Defendants, in proceeding with their illegal move to dispossess the Plaintiff from the suit land, the Plaintiff has filed the Suit for the following relie