JUDGMENT
1. This appeal arises in a suit for partition of a rent free holding. Both the Courts below granted the plaintiff a decree. This appeal has been preferred by one of the defendants, Sagar Mal, and the only ground of appeal pressed before us is that in the case of rent free grant, as of any other tenancy coming under the Agra Tenancy Act, a Civil or a Revenue Court is prohibited by Section 32, Clause (2), of the Act from entertaining a suit for partition. We are of opinion that this section does not apply to a rent free grantee. The section in question falls within Chapter II, which deals with “the devolution, transfer and division of tenancies.” A tenant is defined in Section 4, Clause (5), and does not include a rent free grantee. A rent free grantee, as also a mortgagee of proprietary rights, is by that definition expressly excluded. Consequently a rent free grant does not appear to us to be a “holding” within the meaning of Section 32. The word “holding” in that section means, we think, the holding of a tenant as defined by the Act. We may point out that the heading of Section 32 is: “Division of tenancies,” that is the division of the holdings of tenants as defined in Section 4. We may also point out that Chapter X of the Act deals with the presumption of rent free grants. A separate Chapter in the Act is devoted to these grants. Their view was expressed by our brother Richards in the case of Abdul Karim v. Ramzan A.W.N. 1908, p. 197. Our learned brother, after referring at length to some of the sections of the Agra Tenancy Act, held that a suit for partition of land alleged to be rent free is not excluded from the jurisdiction of the Civil Court either by Section 233(k) of the Land Revenue Act or by Section 32 of the Agra Tenancy Act. We therefore agree in the view expressed by both the Courts below and dismiss the appeal with costs.
