HIGH COURT OF ALLAHBAD
J. N. TAKRU, S. K. VERMA, M. CHANDRA, JJ.
Pearey
Versus
Pachchoo
Second Appeal No. 425 of 1954
Decided On : 01-01-1964
BRIT KHAKROBI - ENFORCEABILITY - ORIGIN NOT GIVEN - NO ENFORCEABLE RIGHT - FACT OF THE CASE - Plaintiff, a sweeper, claimed ownership and possession of Brit Khakrobi, the right to earn money by scavenging houses in a certain part of Chandausi town. Defendants, also sweepers, contested the claim, asserting their own ownership and possession of the right. The trial court dismissed the suit, holding that the plaintiff failed to prove possession within 12 years before the institution of the suit. The lower appellate court reversed the decision and decreed the suit. The defendants appealed to the High Court, raising the legal plea that the right was not enforceable when its origin was not given.
Finding of the Court:
The High Court held that the plaintiff's claim for Brit Khakrobi was not enforceable because he failed to establish the origin of the right by way of a grant, lost grant, custom, or long and uninterrupted usage to the exclusion of others. The court noted that the plaintiff did not plead or prove any such origin and that the mere fact that the defendants claimed to have been exercising the right for a long time did not create any difference.
Issues: 1. Whether the right of Brit Khakrobi is enforceable when its origin is not given? 2. Whether the plaintiff established the origin of his claimed Brit Khakrobi right?
Ratio Decidendi: 1. The right of Brit Khakrobi is not enforceable when its origin is not given. 2. The plaintiff failed to establish the origin of his claimed Brit Khakrobi right by way of a grant, lost grant, custom, or long and uninterrupted usage to the exclusion of others.
Final Decision: The appeal was allowed, the decree of the lower appellate court was set aside, and the plaintiff's suit was dismissed with costs throughout.
CHANDRA, J. :- This case has come up before this Bench as a result of the following order of reference by Mithan Lal, J. in a second appeal.
"I, therefore, direct that this case be laid before me Honble the Chief Justice for constituting a larger bench to decide this appeal which involves only one question and if other, i.e. whether the right of Brit Khakrobi is enforceable in a Court of law, when its origin is not given."
The second appeal arose out of a suit for possession and injunction in respect of alleged Brit Khakrobi and recovery of a sum of Rs. 84/- as mesne profits for a period of six months. The parties are sweepers. The case of the plaintiff-respondent No. 1, hereinafter called the respondent No. 1, was that he and his ancestors were owners or Brit Khakrobi, i.e. the right to earn money by scavenging the houses in a certain part of Chandausi town, and that the defendants started interference with the plaintiffs possession about six months before the institution of the suit. The defendants contested the suit on the ground that the respondent No. 1 was not the owner of Brit Khakrobi and had not been in possession of it and that defendants-appellants Nos. 2 and 3, hereinafter called the appellants, were the owners and in possession of the right said that defendant No. 1 who is respondent No. 2, has been unnecessarily impleaded.
2. Both the courts below found that the plaintiffs was the owner of the alleged Brit right. The trial court dismissed the suit holding that the plaintiff had failed to prove his possession within 12 years before the institution of the suit. The lower appellate Court held otherwise and decreed the suit.
3. In second appeal Pearey and Lakhair, appellants, challenged the findings of the Court below and at the time of arguments raised the legal plea that the right was not enforceable when the origin had not been given. The contention of the learned counsel for the respondent that the plea should not be allowed to be raised at the time of the arguments was rightly repelled by the learned single. Judge who allowed the legal plea to be raised. The second contention of the learned counsel for the respondent was that since the defendants had claimed a similar right or Brit Khakrobi in the locality in dispute the question of the origin of the rights did not arise. The learned counsel for the appellants on the other hand relied upon the Division. Bench decisions of this Court in Buddha v. Balwanta, AIR 1958 All 699 and Lachman v. Bhajan, 26 All LJ 815 : (AIR 1928 All 389) and contended that merely because of the claim of the defendants that they were themselves the owners of the Brit Khakrobi in the locality in dispute the denial of plaintiffs right will not lose effect and the suit could not be decreed unless the origin of the Brit claimed by the plaintiff was given. The learned single Judge thought that both the cases were distinguishable but in view of some general observations made by the Division Bench in AIR 1958 All 699 referred the appeal for decision by a larger Bench.
4. It is clear from a study of Paras Nos. 1 to 3 of the plaint that the plaintiff did not allege either a giant or a custom, or a long and uninterrupted usage which would suffice to establish either a lost grant or an exclusive prescriptive right. He mainly asserted that he and before him his father Ghasi and aunt Smt. Boni were owners of Brit Khakrobi and in possession of the right in the locality in dispute and that the matter had been settled by a panchayat. In evidence also the plaintiff mainly relied on the decision of a caste panchayat dated 28-8-1907 in a dispute between the plaintiffs father and aunt, Ghasi and Smt. Boni, on the one hand and Gangu, father of defendant No. 1, who is now respondent No. 2, on the other, ins panchayats award (Ext. 8) was that the right of Khakrboi of the ginning factory called the Pech and the eastern part of the road would belong to Ghasi and Smt. Boni and that of the western part of the
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