JUDGEMENT :- This is a plaintiff's second appeal from the decree of the Civil Judge, Gorakhpur reversing that of the 3rd Additional Munsif and dismissing his suit for an injunction to restrain the defendant-respondents from interfering with his right to use a piece of land and for a mandatory injunction to close up a door and a window opening on this land. The houses of the plaintiff appellant Parmatma Prasad and the defendant-respondent Mst. Sampatti are adjacent with a vacant plot of land between them. The plaintiff alleged in his plaint that the strip of land between the two houses belonged to him and he had constructed a latrine on it for his use, that the defendants had recently opened a door and window in the wall of their house facing the vacant plot (and also facing the plaintiff's house); that the defendants had recently demolished a wall of the plaintiff's latrine, and when the plaintiff protested they threatened to assault him. The plaintiff then filed this suit and asked for an injunction to restrain the defendants from interfering with his use of the strip of land and for a mandatory injunction requiring them to close up their door and window in their own wall.

2. The defendants resisted the suit and denied that the strip of land or the latrine belonged to him. They asserted that both belonged to them.

3. The trial court held that the latrine belongs to the plaintiff and that he had been in possession of the strip of land. Accordingly, it issued an injunction to restrain the defendants from interfering with his possession of this strip, but refused to issue a mandatory injunction to the defendants to close up the door and window in their wall.

4. The defendants appealed and the plaintiff filed a cross-objection. The Civil Judge, disagreeing with the trial court, found that the plaintiff-respondent had not established any title to the land - not even a possessory title, and was therefore, not entitled to any injunction with regard to this land. He also held that the defendants too had not established their title to the strip of land, but he was of the view that the plaintiff had to establish his own title before he could succeed in his suit. He allowed the appeal and dismissed the plaintiff's suit and also his cross-objection. The latter has come here in second appeal.

5. I have heard learned counsel for the plaintiff-appellant and the defendant-respondents. Counsel for the appellant contended that the view of the lower appellate court that the plaintiff had not established his title to the strip of land is erroneous. He contended that the Civil Judge had misconstrued a document produced by the plaintiff and this vitiated his assessment of evidence. This argument is based on a misunderstanding of the phrase "misconstruction (or misinterpretation) of a document". It means that that the Court has misconstrued the legal effect or nature of a document. For example, if the document creates a lease but the Court wrongly thinks it is a license, or if it is an agreement of guarantee but the Court holds it to be one of idemnity, this is a misconstruction of the document. But if a document contains allegations or recitals of facts and a party relies on these recitals in proof of his own allegation of facts, and the Court either rejects the recitals as incorrect or misunderstands their

effects, this! is not a misconstruction of the document but an erroneous view of the facts stated in the document.

In the present case the question was whether the strip of land belonged to the plaintiff or defendants. The plaintiff in support of his claim produced a copy of a sale deed of the defendants' house in which the boundary of the plaintiff's house was described as the defendants' house. But the Court held that the description of the plaintiff's boundary in the sale deed as "the defendants' house" did not mean that the vacant strip of land between the two houses belonged to the plaintiff. Counsel contended that this amounts to a misconstruct

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