Saraswati Das and others Vs Shib Narayan Das and another (Calcutta High Court)
In Saraswati Das and others Vs Shib Narayan Das and another, the Calcutta High Court dismissed a second appeal challenging concurrent eviction decrees passed by the lower courts against the appellants, who were held to be licensees in respect of the suit property. The Court held that in a suit for eviction of a licensee, the plaintiff is only required to establish a better title than the defendant and not absolute title.
The appellants argued that the suit effectively involved declaration of title and therefore the plaintiffs were required to prove title through valid title deeds. They contended that records of rights were not documents of title and that the plaintiffs failed to prove induction of the appellants as licensees. The appellants also claimed co-ownership through a common ancestor and argued that the absence of exclusive title documents in favour of the plaintiffs should have prevented grant of eviction decree.
The High Court observed that in an eviction suit against licensees, the plaintiff need only establish a better title than the defendants. The Court noted that the plaintiffs had produced several documents including records of rights, municipal tax receipts, khajna receipts, assessment register extracts, mutation certificates, and death certificates to show that the property stood in the name of the plaintiff’s mother through whom title was claimed.
