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3. The defence set up by the defendant No. 1 was that the idol Sri Sri Madan Gopal Jiu had been established by Lakshmi Narain Chowdhury, the ancestor of her husband; that he had, in 1755, made an absolute endowment for the benefit of the Idol of the whole of mouza. Krishnanagar and had appointed as shebait of the Idol one Brij Kishore Adhikary; that the profits of the mouza had been subsequently applied for the benefit of the Idol; that after the family of Brij Kishore Adhikary who had been appointed shebait had died out, the shebaitship reverted to the family of the founder of the endowment, and that Nara Narain Roy Chowdhury and after him, his son and grandson and great grandson were shebaits of the thakur and held possession of an one-half share of the land in mouza Krishnanagar as such. It was also pointed out that, in certain resumption proceedings in 1832, mouza Krisnanagar had been lecognised by the Revenue authorities as the debutter land of the Idol Sri Sri Madan. Gopal Jiu and that the mouza was afterwards measured as debutter and recorded as such in the Revenue Survey of 1247 (1840). It was further alleged that the plaintiff, when applying for the sale of the property in satisfaction of his decree, admitted that the property was debutter property and it was contended that he was not entitled in the present suit to claim to have acquired a valid proprietary title under his purchase.

4. In support of the defendant's case, reliance was placed on certain old documents commencing from 1775 up to 1785. These were a sanad dated the 11th day of Zilhijja 1166,--1775 (Ex. L.), a second copy of the above dated the 15th Zilhijja 1166, a petition of Brij Kishore Adhikary (Ex. Ta.) dated the 21st Kartick 1184=5th November 1777, addressed to the naib of Chakla Hijli praying for acknowledgment of his right as shebait to the debutter land, with an order of the same date passed on that petition, a sanad (Ex. Tc.) dated the 29th August 1782, addressed to the Sikdar of perganah Keoramal directing him to release the debutter lands in favour of the shebait Brij Kishore Adhikary of Krisnanagar and a Rubakary (Ex. Tb) dated the 10th February 1785, addressed to the amlas and other officers of perganah Keoramal directing them to take notice that the land was debutter. This last mentioned document referred to the order of 1782. These ancient documents were produced by the defendants in order to prove the original endowment and its subsequent recognition by the authorities.

5. Other documents relied on were (1) Ex. T, dated the 8th November 1830, being a list of certain papers filed in a resumption case relating to lakheraj mahal krishnanagar. This list contains the previous documents Exs. L, Ta, Tb and Tc: (2), Ex. U a copy of a Rubakary, dated the 4th May 1832, in proceedings taken under. Regulation XIX of 1793. That Rubakaryr efers to all the documents mentioned in the list described above and directs under Section 2 of Regulation XIX of 1793, that the land described as 3,000 bighas of lakheraj debutter land in mouza Krishnanagar be recovered as lakheraj debutter Of Sri Sri Madan Gopal Jiu Thakur and (3) the Revenue Survey Chittas of 1247=20th April 18 16 in which the lands of mouza Krishnanagar are described as the debutter lands of Thakur Madan Gopal Jiu, the then shebait being Krishnendra Narain Roy of Basudebpur. These documents were relied on to show that the debutter character of the property was recognised by the Revenue authorities in 1832 and 1840.

6. In addition to the above mentioned ancient documents, a number of judgments and decrees from 1872 to 1905 were filed by the defendants to show that, in those proceedings, the disputed property had all along been described as the debutter of the Idol Sri Sri Madan Gopal Jiu. The defendants also examined many tenants of the mouza and filed rent receipts in order to prove that the lands had all along been treated as the debutter lands of the Idol.

7. The principal documents on which the plaintiff relied were these: (1) A petition (Ex. 29) filed on the 15th May 1854, by Raja Koer Narain Ray, brother of Krishnendra Narain Roy, grand-father of the husband of the defendant No. 1, in a case brought against Raja Gajendra Narain Roy, father of Bhu-pendra Narain Roy, for recovery of a half share of mouza Krishnanagar. That document purports to show the debutter properties belonging to the two branches of the family and, as the Krishnanagar mouza is not included in it, it is suggested that it goes to show that the lands in mouza Krishnanagar were never treated as debutter; (2) an application for registration made in the Revenue Courts in 1891 by the manager of the Court of Wards for the registration of the name of Bhupendra Narain, who was then a minor, as the proprietor of a half share of mouzah Krishnanagar in which document Bhupendra Narain is described as the proprietor and not as the shebait, and it was relied on to prove that the property was all along held as secular property: and (3) an application made in 1891 by Haripriya, the widow of Kuer Narain Roy, for registration of her name as proprietor of half share of mouza Krishnanagar. Reliance was also placed on the fact that certain Chuckerbutties received gifts of lands included in mouza Krishnanagar amounting to 98 bighas in all from the family of defendant's husband, and that they afterwards obtained registration of their names as proprietors of those lands alleging that they had a title by gift and that their title was acknowledged by the members of the Raj family. Copies of the applications were filed and it was argued that they proved that the property was always treated as secular property and was transferred by gift by the members of the family to which the defendants belonged. Reliance was also placed on two mortgage bonds, one bearing date the 7th November 1899, Ex. I (1), executed by Bhupendra Narain Roy in favour of Pro-motho Nath Mullick by which Bhupendra mortgaged with other properties the whole 16 annas of mouzah Krishnanagar and the other (Ex. 15) executed by the defendant No. 2 on the 30th March 1901, mortgaging a half share in Krishnanagar along with other properties to Jnanendra Nath Bhattacharji.