On the Future of Indigenous Traditions - Munin

saying she was illegally building house on his property. Whereas Bodra claimed, this
land originally belonged to Jena Bodra, his father’s elder brother, who had given it to
him before this old man died issueless in 1965. The sales deed Kui produced in this
case is of 1961 when she claims to have legally obtained it with the thumb impression
of Jena Bodra. Jogesh Bodra challenges it by asking why Jena would make a thumb
impression on the sales deed instead of signing on the document, since Jena was a
literate and an educated man. However, witnesses of both sides were not aware of the
sale of this land to Kui when cross examined. Bodra also argued that this land’s tax
receipt (which obviously would have Jena’s name and not his) was with him because
he had been paying tax for it. This was his basis of claming his ownership over this
particular plot of land. Bodra lost the case because of the documentary proof Kui had
obtained from the district office through a lawyer there.
4.6. Analysis
What is particularly important and also at the same time different in these two cases
from Charai Pir? From these two case illustrations of Lakshmi and Jambo Kui we
can conclude:
- That the merits of these cases are seen rationally and with sufficient evidence to
back up the arguments of both the parties involved in the case. In its proceeding
this court follows more or less the same principals of the district and the state
court system, however, with no bureaucratic stacks attached with it.
- Legal documents play an important and decisive role in these cases; however,
these legal documents which are usually the domain of the state authority here, at
times can be questionable of its fairness in the way it has been obtained.
- The witnesses in this court add weight and authenticate to the arguments brought
forward. However, witnesses are not only produced by the parties’ own choice to
prove the matter to be in their favor, but also that the matter of the case is cross
verified by Manki’s own sources built upon individual and social trust of the
members of the village and larger community. Fabricating evidence to some one’s
own advantage usually has less room, as the court process is more open and more
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