38 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
“No Special Preserve”
Whatever may be the final decision of the suit on its merits, I am, for the present, thoroughly satisfied, that the Chawdar Tank in suit is Government Municipal property and not the private property of particular individuals as alleged by Plaintiffs. The question then is whether plaintiffs have a right to exclude Defendants from enjoyment thereof. The answer is obviously “No”. In the case of such property there cannot be any reservation in favour of a particular class of community, and the Defendants have as much a right to its enjoyment as the Plaintiffs have. No question of irreparable injury therefore arises. In this case the property being Municipal property and the Defendant having as much a right to use it as the Plaintiffs, their exercise of that right cannot be said to cause any injury to Plaintiffs.
Lame Arguments of Plaintiffs’ Counsel
It is argued for the Plaintiffs by their learned pleader Mr. Virkar that on their own admission, the Defendants have not up to now enjoyed the use of the tank in suit. But, when once it is shown that the property is not private but public and open to all members of the public, the mere non-user of the tank by the Defendants during howsoever long a term of years cannot in any way derogate from their title. I am satisfied from the evidence produced before me that the tank in suit is not the private property of the Plaintiffs, but that it is Government Municipal property, and the Defendants have as much a right to its enjoyment as the Plaintiffs have and that any interference with the exercise of such right would be wholly illegal.
I cannot conclude this order without expressing my regret at the inconvenience and hardship caused to the Defendants by the injunction granted by me, temporary though it was, and at having been instrumental in heaping one more wrong upon a community already labouring under the most cruel and unjust social wrongs. I dissolve the injunction issued by me.” [1]
1 : The Bombay Chronicle, dated 3rd March 1928.