1. The learned District Judge has dismissed these appeals on the ground that the suits were barred by res judicata. I do not agree with this view. It was decided by an Assistant Collector of the second class in a suit for arrears of rent that the land was the defendants' khudkasht. The question whether this land was not the defendants' khudkasht was directly and substantially in issue in a former suit between the same parties litigating under the same title but it was not in issue in a Court competent to try the subsequent suit. So the decision in the former case cannot operate as res judicata in the present case. It is unnecessary to say much more. The provisions of Section 199 of the Local Act II of 1901 have no bearing on the matter. It is true that such a decision of an Assistant Collector of the second class would operate as a decision of the Civil Court in a subsequent suit in the Court of an Assistant Collector of the second class but it would have no effect in the Court of an Assistant Collector of the first class.
2. I, accordingly, allow these appeals and as I have reversed the decision of the learned District Judge on a preliminary point of law I send the appeals back to him to restore under their original numbers and decide on the merits.
3. The costs will follow results.
4. Appeals allowed.