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Judgment
Muthuswami Aiyar, J.—The question for determination in this appeal is whether the 1st defendant''s claim to the land in dispute as his Inam
is res judicata. The facts of the case are sufficiently stated by the Subordinate Judge in paragraph 7 of his Judgment. It is observed by him that
between the plaintiff and the defendants in the previous suit including plaintiffs and 1st defendant the question is certainly res judicata. Though the
plaintiff and defendants in the present suit were merely co-defendants in the previous suit and though they were ex parte and. there was no contest
between them yet my decision in this case must depend on explanation V of Section 13 of the Cede of Civil Procedure. It was held with reference
to that explanation in the case reported in I. L. R. 14 M 325 Chandu v. Kunhamed, that though the 1st defendant in that case under whom the then
plaintiff claimed was ex parte in the previous suit and the title of the 2nd defendant cannot therefore be said to have been actively contested
between * C. M. A. No. 5 of 1893. 3rd August 1894, the then first and 2nd defendants yet the 1st defendant and his other co-sharers must be
held as claiming under the plaintiff in the previous suit by explanation V of Section 13 of the Code of Civil Procedure. The case now before me is
on all fours with that case. The parties to this suit were co-defendants in the previous suit and though they were all ex parte, the land in question
was claimed by the then plaintiff as part of the Agraharam land which Was liable for redistribution among him and the defendants who are other
Agraharamdars and his co-sharers. It was the 1st defendant who claimed the land in question as his Inam, in execution, but his claim was
disallowed u/s 244. Upon these facts, it is clear that the other co-defendants who were co-sharers is the Agraharam with the plaintiff in the
previous suit must be taken as claiming tinder him as he claimed the land as common to himself and the other Agraharamdars and as such partible
amongst them. The principle on which this explanation rest is that when an adjudication is necessary to give the appropriate relief to the plaintiff in
the present suit, the adjudication is res judicata even as between co-defendants when the right asserted by the plaintiff and decided in the previous
suit was one so asserted and decided as common to himself and others.
The order of the Subordinate Judge must be set aside and the decision of the District Munsif restored. Respondents will pay appellant''s costs
both in this Court and in the lower appellate court.