Lakshmi Sarkar & ORS v. Dilip Chakraborty

AD. 4.

August 23, 2021.

MNS.

C. O. No. 3576 of 2018 (Via video conference) Lakshmi Sarkar and others Vs.

Dilip Chakraborty Mr. Rajdeep Bhattacharyya ... for the petitioners.

Affidavit-of-service filed in Court today be taken on record.

Despite service, none appears on behalf of the opposite party.

The short question which arises for consideration in the present revisional application is, whether the trial court acted without jurisdiction in rejecting the defendants-petitioners' application under Order VII Rule 11 of the Code of Civil Procedure on the ground that, as admitted in paragraph- 4 of the plaint of the eviction suit, the plaintiff-opposite party was described as a thika tenant, which excludes the jurisdiction of the civil court to take up such matters and relegates the same to be decided by the Thika Controller.

It is evident from the averments made in the plaint, particularly in paragraph- 4 of the same, that the dispute involved in the suit is between bharatias

and a thika tenant, being the petitioners and the opposite party respectively.

Under Section 21 the West Bengal Thika Tenancy (Acquisition and Regulation) Act, 2001 (in short the Act of 2001), the jurisdiction of the civil court has specifically been excluded regarding such matters. Section 10 of the said Act of 2001 confers specifically the power to adjudicate disputes arising between the thika tenant and their bharatias by the Thika Controller.

As such, the trial court acted without jurisdiction in rejecting the petitioners' application under Order VII Rule 11 of the Code.

C. O. No. 3576 of 2018 is accordingly allowed, thereby setting aside order no. 15 dated July 27, 2018 passed by the Civil Judge (Junior Division), Fourth Court at Alipore, District- South 24 Parganas, in Ejectment Suit No. 18 of 2016. The plaint of Ejectment Suit No. 18 of 2016, pending before the said court, stands rejected by virtue of this order, with liberty to the opposite party to approach the appropriate forum on the self-same cause of action as taken in the plaint.

There will be no order as to costs.

Urgent photostat certified copies of this order, if applied for, be made available to the parties upon compliance with the requisite formalities.

(Sabyasachi Bhattacharyya, J.)