Allahbad High Court
O.P.TRIVEDI
Vidya Sagar - Appellant
Versus
Ram Das - Respondent
Decided On : 02/27/1976
EASEMENT - RIGHT OF WAY - ACQUISITION BY PRESCRIPTION - REQUIREMENTS - USER AS OF RIGHT - PERMISSIVE USER - MENDS OF FIELDS - INTERPRETATION OF SECTION 15 OF THE INDIAN EASEMENTS ACT, 1882.
Fact of the Case:
Plaintiff Ram Das claimed to have acquired an easement by prescription over a passage between his plot and the plot of defendant Vidya Sagar. He alleged that he had been using the passage for going to his southern fields and taking his bullocks and cows over it for a statutory period. Vidya Sagar had constructed an Abata encroaching upon the passage.
Finding of the Court:
The trial court dismissed the suit, holding that Ram Das failed to establish his claim. The District Judge allowed Ram Das's appeal, finding that he had acquired a right of way by prescription. The court found that there was a 5 Ft. wide passage between the plots and that Ram Das had been using it for a statutory period.
Issues: 1. Whether Ram Das had acquired an easement by prescription over the passage. 2. Whether the user of the passage was as of right or permissive.
Ratio Decidendi: The court held that Ram Das had not acquired an easement by prescription over the passage. The court found that the user of the passage was permissive and not as of right. The court relied on Section 15 of the Indian Easements Act, 1882, which provides that a person acquires a right by prescription where a right of way or any other easement has been peaceably and openly enjoyed by any person claiming title thereto, as an easement and as of right, without interruption and for 20 years.
Final Decision: The court allowed the appeal and set aside the judgment and decree of the District Judge. The court restored the judgment and decree of the trial court, which had dismissed Ram Das's suit.
2. I have heard learned counsel for the parties. The first submission is that no case of acquisition of easementary right by prescription was set up in the plaint and, therefore, the lower appellate court was in error in spelling out a new case of that kind for the plaintiff. This submission, however, does not appear borne out from the plaint because in para 1 of the plaint there was an averment suggesting long user of the disputed land as a passage.
3. The next submission is that there was no evidence to support the lower appellate Court's finding that there was 10 Ft. wide passage between plots Nos. 354 and 340 and that the respondent had been using any such passage either for himself going to his fields or taking his bullocks to the fields. In this connection it is submitted that all that was established from the evidence of defendant's witnesses was that there was a Mend between these two plots and it was this Mend which was being used by Ram Das for going to his fields and for taking his bullocks but it was submitted that this was permissive use of the Mend and there was no evidence that the plaintiff had been using the Me
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