Judgment

Srikrishna, J.—

Civil Appeal No. 3862 of 2001:

This appeal by special leave impugns the judgment dated 8.12.2000 rendered by the Division Bench of the Delhi High Court in an appeal RFA (OS) No. 19 of 1989. The Division Bench overturned the decree granted by the learned Single Judge and dismissed the suit of the original plaintiff. Legal representatives of the original plaintiff are appellants before us while the three defendants in the suit (Union of India, State of Punjab and Sukhjit Singh) are respectively the respondents before us. For the sake of convenience, we shall refer to the parties as arrayed in the suit.

Facts :

2. The plaintiff instituted a suit in 1960 before the Civil Court at Delhi which ultimately came to be transferred to the Original Side of the Delhi High Court and was disposed of by a learned Single Judge. The suit was for declaration of title to the property being land and building situated at 3, Mansingh Road, New Delhi.

3. By an indenture of lease dated 13.7.1921, Khan Bahadur Abdul Hamid, the then Chief Minister of Kapurthala State, had been granted a perpetual lease of the plot of land situate at 3, Mansingh Road, New Delhi. He raised a construction the