JAGDISH SAHAI, J. :- This defendant's appeal has come to us on a reference made by our brothers W. Broome and G. C. Mathur.

2. The suit giving rise to this appeal was filed by the plaintiffs-respondents for the ejectment of the defendants from certain plots of agricultural land on the allegation that they (the plaintiffs-respondents) were the Sirdars of the plots in suit. It was alleged that about thirty years next preceding the date of the filing of the suit the ancestors of the plaintiffs-respondents had borrowed a sum of Rs. 200/- from the ancestors of the defendants and had executed an unregistered mortgage deed for the same and on the basis of that transaction the defendants' ancestors were put in possession over the land in suit. It has been pleaded that the entire mortgage debt has been satisfied through the receipt of profits of the disputed land by the ancestors of the defendants and thereafter the defendants themselves. Relief of rendition of account and delivery of possession was claimed by the plaintiffs.

3. The suit was contested by the defendants inter alia on the ground that they were sub-tenants of the plots in dispute by virtue of the provisions of U.P. Act