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Judgment
This is an appeal by the plaintiff in a suit brought for enhancement of rent on the ground that the rent paid was below the prevailing rate within the meaning of Section 30(a) of the Bengal Tenancy Act.
The learned Subordinate Judge has found that in the village in question there are in fact seven different rates of rent paid by seven different tenants, the rates varying from Rs. 2-5-5 to Rs. 7-9-5 per bigha. In this state of facts he has held, and in our opinion rightly held, that there is no one prevailing rate up to which enhancement can be allowed. Section 31A of the Bengal Tenancy Act not having been extended to the District in question, obviously he was right in dismissing the plaintiff''s suit for enhancement. The case of Alep Khan v. Raghu Nath Prosad Tewari 10. W.N. 310 has been cited before us, and we have been asked to hold on the authority of that case that the lowest rate found payable in this village should be taken as the prevailing rate. But in the case cited the facts are very different. There we find that there were 63 tenants and that they paid different rates varying from Rs. 1-8 to Rs. 2, the highest rate payable being arrived at by infinitesimal degrees or stages of variation. In the circumstances of that particular case, the Court held that the lowest rate being in fact indistinguishable from the next higher rate and the higher rate being indistinguishable from that above, the lowest rate might reasonably be taken as the prevailing rate. Here the facts are very different. The variation is from Rs. 2 to Rs. 7 and the degrees or stages of variation are by no means infinitesimal.
This appeal fails and is, therefore, dismissed with costs.