( 1 ) THIS special appeal arises out of suit No. 165 of 1954 of the Court of Munsif, Ramsanchighat. district Barabanki. The plaintiffs-respondents (to be referred to hereafter only as plaintiffs) filed the suit against the defendant-appellant (to be referred to hereafter as the defendant) for recovery of possession over a grove, about the identity of which there is no dispute. The plaintiffs claimed to be the representatives of one Ganeshi, who had mortgaged this grove with possession with one Sita Ram under a mortgage-deed dated 20th June, 1873. There was a stipulation in the document that if the mortgage was not redeemed by a certain date in 1882, the mortgage-deed would be deemed to be a sale deed and that Sita Ram would thereafter be entitled to retain the grove as a purchaser thereof. This stipulation has been held to be only by way of a clog on the equity of redemption, and the document has been held to be a usufructuary mortgage-deed, pure and simple. The mortgagee Sita Ram was succeeded by one Gauri Shankar, who, under a document dated 15th June, 1906, transferred his interest in favour of the present defendant Ram Hazari, who is now in possession of the gro