Deepak Gupta JUDGMENT
Deepak Gupta, J.
1. Ramkrishna Datta, Dhirendra Chandra Ghosh and Lalit Mohan Ghosh, filed a suit in the trial court for declaration of their title on the suit land with consequential relief of permanent injunction for restraining Aftaruddin (contesting Defendant & Appellant before this Court), who has since expired and is represented by legal heirs, from interfering in the suit land.
2. From the facts as pleaded and proved before the trial court it is apparent that one Sayed Jama Kazi was the raiyat (owner) of the suit land. Aftaruddin was under-raiyat (Kurfa rights similar to tenancy rights). This fact is apparent from the Revenue Record as reported in the Civil Survey of Settlement for the year 1965-66 and in the Revenue Khatiyan No. 302 published on 15.03.96. On 11.01.71, Aftaruddin is alleged to have executed a sale deed transferring the entire suit land in favour of Mamataj Begam, daughter of the raiyat Sayed Jama Kazi. Thereafter, Mamataj Begam and Sayed Jama Kazi transferred the suit land to Plaintiffs 1 and 2 by registered sale deed on 27.11.71. On 06.04.81 Plaintiff No. 2 sold and transferred a portion of his land to Plaintiff No. 3. In the Revenue Record the Defendant Aftaruddin was shown to be in possession of the suit land. Therefore, the Plaintiffs filed a suit for declaration of their title and prayed for injunction that Defendant No. 1 be restrained from interfering in the suit land.
3. The suit was contested by Aftaruddin and two contentions were raised: (i) that the sale deed was never executed by him and (ii) that being an under-raiyat he could not transfer his rights to any person in view of the bar created by Section 108 of the Tripura Land Revenue and Land Reforms Act, 1960 (for short the 'TLR&LR Act'). The original sale deed was not produced on the ground that the same was destroyed in fire but a certified copy of the same was produced. The trial court held that though the sale deed had been executed, Aftaruddin could not have transferred his rights in the suit land and, therefore, dismissed the suit. The First Appeal filed was also dismissed. In the Second Appeal this concurrent finding of fact was set aside on the ground that it was a perverse finding. It was held by the High Court that in the sale deed Aftaruddin has represented himself to be a raiyat and not an under-raiyat and, therefore, Section 108 of TLR&LR Act had no application. The High Court also found that in terms of Section 43 of the Transfer of Property Act the subsequent vendee could not be denied their rights.
4. We have heard learned Counsel for the Appellant. A "raiyat" has been defined in Section 2(s) of the TLR&LR Act to mean a person who owns land for purposes of agriculture, paying land revenue to the Government; and "under-raiyat" Under Section 2(v) means a person who cultivates or holds the land of raiyat under an agreement, express or implied, on condition of paying therefor rent in ca........