JUDGMENT

Daniels, J. - The dispute in this case relates to a grove No. 168 in Mauza Ghatampur in the Allahabad District. The grove was planted by the ancestors of the second and third defendants with the permission of the zemindar on payment of nazrana and they occupied the land as grove-holders. They have transferred their rights in the grove by a sale-deed to the first defendant Chandarpal Singh. The plaintiff-appellant Lai Baijnath Singh thereupon instituted the present suit on the allegation that the transfer was unlawful and that it gave the zemindar a right to recover possession of the land. Both the Courts below have dismissed the suit. They held that under the general law a person who plants a grove with the permission of the zemindar acquires a transferable interest in the trees and that the plaintiff has failed to prove any custom disentitling the defendants from transferring their rights.

2. Two points arise in the appeal, (1) whether a custom forbidding grove-holders to transfer the trees is laid down in the wajb-ul-arz of the village, and, if so, whether it has been rebutted; (2) whether the general law has been rightly laid down by the Courts below.

3. At the time when t