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reference may be made to Raj Rup Koer v. Abul Hossein
(1881) 6 Cal 394 where some 40 or 50 years before the
suit the plaintiff's ancestors, after making compensation
to the defendants, had constructed a pain or artificial
watercourse on the defendants' land to take water from a
natural stream to the plaintiff's land. Some years before
the suit the defendants, without authority, had obstructed
the flow of water along the pain by making dams and
cuts in the channel and thus drew off continuously, from
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day to day, water from the plaintiff's channels and
diverted it to their own fields. In a suit by the plaintiff for
a declaration of his sole right to the pain and an
injunction directing the defendants to close the openings
and restraining them from draining off the water in
future, it was held by their Lordships of the Privy
Council that the dams, outs and other modes of
obstructing or diverting the water from the watercourse
were in the nature of a "continuing nuisance" as to
which the cause of action was renewed de die in diem so
long as the obstructions causing such interference were
allowed to continue and the suit was held to fall within
Section 24, Limitation Act 9 of 1871 (which
corresponded to Section 23 of the present Act 9 of 1908).
AIR1935Cal405 ). All these decisions purport to be
based on Raj Rup Koer v. Abul Hossein (1881) 6 Cal 394
above referred to and in some of them it has been
broadly stated that there is no distinction between an
obstruction to a water-course and one to a way, and
wrongful interference with a right of way constitutes a
continuing nuisance (Nazimulla v. Wazidulla AIR (1916)
Cal 733). With great deference, it must be said that this
proposition is too widely expressed and cannot be
accepted as correct in all cases, regardless of the nature
and extent of the encroachment or obstruction. There is,
for instance, no analogy between the case decided by the
Privy Council and a case in which a right of way has
been obstructed by the construction of a wall or a
building of a more or less permanent character, which
has completely blocked the way of the plaintiff. As has
been stated above, in Raj Rup Koer v. Abul Hossein
(1881) 6 Cal 394 the defendants by making dams and
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cuts in the water channel, which had been constructed by
the plaintiff on the defendants' land, were diverting,
continuously and day by day the water from the water
channel to their own lands. They were thus committing a
fresh wrong every time that the water was so diverted. In
Nazimulla v. Wazidulla AIR (1916) Cal 733, reference
was made to two English cases. But the facts of those
cases were materially different. Indeed, one of them,
Thorpe v. Brumfitt (1873) 8 Ch A 650, brings out
prominently the distinction between obstructions which
are permanent and those which are not. There, the way
to the yard of the owner of an inn was obstructed by the
loading and unloading of heavy waggons, of the
defendant who owned the adjoining property. The
obstruction was not permanent; it was caused whenever
the waggons were loaded and unloaded and each such
obstruction gave a fresh cause of action to the plaintiff.
In the other English case referred to, Lane v. Chapsey
(1891) 3 Ch D 411 a mandatory injunction to remove the
obstruction to a right of way had been refused, the
defendant had then become insolvent, and the plaintiff
applied to the Insolvency Court for leave to take
proceedings for the abatement of the nuisance. Chitty J.
Tek Chand, J., who delivered the leading
judgment in the case referred to the decision of the
Calcutta High Court dealing with the applicability of
Section 23 of the Limitation Act to a wrongful
obstruction to a right of way and observed:
All these decisions purport to be based on ILR
6 Cal 394: LR 7 1A 240 (PC) (H), above referred to and
in some of them it has been broadly stated that there is
no distinction between an obstruction to a water course
and one to a way, and wrongful interference with a right
of way constitutes a continuous nuisance 21 Cal LJ 640
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:AIR 1916 Cal 733 (2) (O).