Ram Sarup Gupta vs Bishun Narain Inter College

Judicial Analysis Court Copy Headnote Facts Arguments Court observation

1987 Supreme(SC) 409

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
SABYASACHI MUKHARJI AND K.N. SINGH, JJ.
Ram Sarup Gupta (dead) by L. Rs., Appellants
vERSUS
Bishun Narain Inter College and others, Respondents.
Civil Appeal No. 638 of 1980, D/- 8-4-1987.
Advocates appeared :
Mr. S. N. Kacker, Sr. Advocate Mr. G. C. Mathur and Mr. C. P. Lal Advocates with him, for the Appellants; Mr. U. R. Lalit, Sr. Advocate, Mr. K. K. Gupta Advocate, Mr. P. H. Parekh and P. K. Manohar Advocates with them, for the Respondents; Mr. Soli J. Sorabjee, Sr. Advocate, Mr. Prithvi Raj, Mr. N. B. Sinha and Mr. Sanjeev B. Sinha Advocates with them, for Respondents Nos. 10 to 16.

Headnote:PLEADINGS—OBJECT AND PURPOSE
-it is well settled that in the absence of pleading, evidence, if any produced by the parties cannot be considered. It is also equally settled that no party should be permitted to travel beyond its pleading and that all necessary and material facts should be pleaded by the party in support of case set up by it. The object and purpose of pleading is to enable the adversary party to know the case it has to meet. In order to have a fair trial it is imperative that the party should state the essential material facts so that other party may not be taken by surprise. The pleadings however should receive a liberal construction, no pedantic approach should be adopted to defeat justice on hair splitting technicalities.

Judgement Key Points

Based on the provided legal document, here are the key points:

The Supreme Court of India held that the license granted by Raja Ram Kumar Bhargava to the Bishun Narain School was irrevocable because the school, acting upon the license, executed works of a permanent character and incurred expenses in doing so, satisfying Section 60(b) of the Easements Act, 1882 (!) (!) (!) (!) (!) .
The Court emphasized that pleadings should receive a liberal construction; although the defendants did not explicitly use the phrase "acting upon the license," the substance of their written statement clearly raised the plea that they made permanent constructions in pursuance of the license, and the trial court and High Court correctly considered this issue (!) (!) (!) (!) .
The defendants had duly pleaded in their written statement that the school had made substantial additions and alterations, incurred heavy expenses, and that the license was permanent and irrevocable, which was sufficient to meet the requirement of pleading under the Civil Procedure Code (!) (!) .
Evidence produced by the defendants, including witness testimonies and expenditure vouchers, established that the school constructed three classrooms, latrines, and urinals on the open land, thereby fulfilling the conditions for an irrevocable license under Section 60(b) (!) .
The conduct of the grantor, Raja Ram Kumar Bhargava, who continued to be the President of the school and did not object to the constructions for decades, supported the inference that the license was intended to be irrevocable and coupled with the purpose of running the school (!) (!) (!) .
The Court rejected the appellant's argument that the license was revocable merely because it was not explicitly stated in a written document, holding that terms and conditions could be inferred from the surrounding circumstances and the conduct of the parties (!) .
The appellant's claim that Raja Ram Kumar Bhargava, as Karta of a joint family, could not grant a permanent license without consent of minor co-sharers was dismissed, as no objection was raised by any family member and the license was for a charitable purpose (education) (!) .
The Court noted that evicting the school would likely result in the closure of the educational institution, which would be against public interest, further supporting the decision to uphold the irrevocability of the license (!) .
The appeal filed by Ram Sarup Gupta (the appellant) was dismissed, affirming the judgment of the High Court and the trial court that the school had a right to continue occupying the property under the irrevocable license (!) (!) (!) .

JUDGEMENT

SINGH, J. :- This appeal by special leave is directed against the judgment of the High Court of Allahabad dated 18th February, 1978 dismissing the appeal preferred by the appellant against the judgment and decree of the Additional Civil Judge, Lucknow, dismissing the suit instituted by him for possession of the property in dispute.

2. The property in dispute situate at Nawal Kishore Road, Lucknow, consists of buildings and land which have been in the occupation of the Bishun Narain School. In 1938, certain public spirited persons of Lucknow city formed a society registered as the Progressive Education Society for establishing educational institution for imparting education. Raja Ram Kumar Bhargava who owned considerable property, in the Lucknow city, was elected Chairman of the Society. He permitted the society to run an English Middle School on rent in his building, which stood on the site in dispute, the school was commonly known as the "Narhi Middle School". The school was not recognised by the Education Department of the Government as it had no endowment and no building of its own. After protracted correspondence with the authorities of the Education Department, Raja Ram Kumar Bhargava, President of the Society by his letter dated November 26, 1941 (Exhibit C-B-6) informed the Inspector of Schools Lucknow that he has given away the premises occupied by the school free of rent which may be considered his permanent contribution to the cause of the school. In pursuance to the declaration made by Raja Ram Kumar Bhargava the Education Department of the State Government recognised the institution. The members of the Committee of Management felt obliged to the Raja for his charitable disposition in donating the building to the school, accordingly, they unanimously passed a resolution expressing their gratitude to the Raja and they further resolved to change the name of the institution as the "Bishun Narain Anglo Vernacular School" to perpetuate the memory of late Bishun Narain Bhargava, the father of Raja Ram Kumar Bhargava. This meeting was presided over by Raja Ram Kumar Bhargava himself as the President of the Society. Thereafter Raja Ram Kumar Bhargava did not realise rent from the school and he allowed the school to occupy the building and the open land attached to it for the use of the school. With the passage of time the school progressed, it was raised to the status of a High School and then to the status of an Intermediate College which was also named after Bishun Narain Bhargava. Subsequently, the primary section of the institution was separated from the College Section and it was given the name as "Bishun Narain Basic School". This school has been occupying the property in dispute, however, the school and the college both were managed by committee of management of which Raja Ram Kumar Bhargava continued to be the President till 1961 and thereafter his wife Rani Lila Bhargava became the President, which office she continued to occupy since then. As there was considerable increase in the number of students, the institution felt short of accommodation. To meet the need for additional accommodation, the management made permanent constructions on the open land attached to the main building, to provide three class rooms and other facilities including bath-rooms to the students without any objection by the Raja or any of his family members.

3. It appears that Raja Ram Kumar Bhargava had taken considerable amount of money as loan from Central Bank of India and to secure the loan he executed a mortgage deed, on March 27, 1957 mortgaging a number of properties including the property in dispute occupied by the school, in favour of the Central Bank of India. The loan, however, could not be repaid. Raja Ram Kumar Bhargava offered to sell the mortgaged property and on negotiations, the Bank agreed to release the property from mortgage to enable Raja Ram Kumar Bhargava to sell the same for raising money to pay off the loan. T

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1987 Supreme(SC) 409

Cases Referred (2)