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Tarsem Lal and others v. Ram Sarup and others

Civil Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Civil Appeal No. 4919 of 2014)Decided 28 Apr 2014
Civil Appeal No. 4919 of 2014
Justice C.K. Prasad · Justice Sudhansu Jyoti Mukhopadhaya

Background

Faqir Chand leased agricultural land with a registered right to irrigate it from a well on his landlord's remaining property. He later became owner of the leased land through Himachal Pradesh's tenancy reform law. When the former landlords threatened to stop his water supply, he obtained an injunction, which the High Court reversed because he was now an owner rather than a tenant.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court allowed his successors' appeal and restored the trial decree protecting irrigation. Section 36 prevented curtailment of water enjoyed by the tenant before the Act, and section 104 transferred the landlord's rights in the tenanted land to the tenant. Becoming owner by operation of the reform law did not extinguish the existing irrigation right. The registered lease and revenue mutation supported that right to the common well. The High Court had therefore wrongly treated conversion to ownership as a reason to lose the water supply.

Lesson Learnt

A tenant who gained ownership under this reform law retained the established irrigation facility. The former landlord could not remove that facility simply because the tenant's legal status had improved.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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