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2006 Supreme(SC) 584

2006(5) Supreme 372
SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
(From Allahabad High Court)
S.B. Sinha and P.K. Balasubramanyan, JJ.
Subhaga & Ors. — Appellants
versus
Shobha & Ors. — Respondents
Civil Appeal No. 2836 of 2006
(Arising out of S.L.P. (C) No. 13705 of 2003)
Decided on 7-7-2006
Counsel for the Parties :
For the Appellants : Ms. Vinita G. Upadhyay, Girdhar G. Upadhyay, Syed Ali Ahmed, Syed Tanweer Ahmed, Rajeev Sharma and R.D. Upadhyay, Advocates.

IMPORTANT POINT
A property can be identified either by boundary or by any other specific description.

Headnote:Civil Procedure Code, 1908 — Section 100 — Second Appeal — Suit for mandatory injunction directing defendants to demolish construction on suit land and to fill up a well dug by them — Trial Court decreed suit holding that plaintiff was the owner of suit land and suit land was identified on spot — Lower appellate Court upheld the decree — In second appeal High Court upheld finding that plaintiff was owner of plot in question but reversed that judgment on a finding that there was no proper identification of suit property and boundaries could not be ascertained without surveying adjoining plots — Appeal — Lower appellate Court while considering question of identification had referred to description of boundaries in plaint, admission of defendant and report of Commissioner — High Court was not justified in interfering with findings and in discarding identification made by Commissioner — Vague and general reasons given by High Court were insufficient to upset the findings — Property Could be identified by boundary or by any other specific description — Impugned judgment was liable to be set aside and that of trial Court to be restored.

       Held : The lower appellate court while considering the question of identification had referred to the description of the boundaries in the plaint, the admissions of one of the defendants as DW1 and the report and plan submitted by the Commissioner. That Court also noticed that the plaintiff had given specific boundaries of the suit land and it was clear from the sketch prepared by the Commissioner that the disputed constructions lay in the suit land and that it belonged to the plaintiff. This was the basis of the affirmance of the decree in favour of the plaintiff by the lower appellate court. In Second Appeal, the learned Judge of the High Court, after referring to the description of the boundaries in the plaint, simply discarded the sketch prepared by the Commissioner in the presence of the parties after ascertaining the plots lying as boundaries of the suit property. It also appears to have taken the view that without a survey of the adjoining plots, it cannot definitely be said that the disputed structure lies in the plot belonging to the plaintiff, namely, plot No. 1301/1 Ba. We think that the High Court was not justified in interfering with the finding of the lower appellate court and in discarding the identification made by the Commissioner.(Para 5)

       That a property can be identified either by boundary or by any other specific description is well established. Here the attempt had been to identify the suit property with reference to the boundaries and the Commissioner has identified that property with reference to such boundaries. Even if there was any discrepancy, normally, the boundaries should prevail. There was no occasion to spin a theory that it was necessary in this suit to survey all the adjacent lands to find out whether an encroachment was made in the land belonging to the plaintiff. In this situation, we are satisfied that the judgment and decree of the High Court calls for interference. We are also satisfied that the lower appellate court was justified in affirming the decree granted in favour of the plaintiff on the pleadings and the evidence in the case.(Para 6)

JUDGMENT

P.K. Balasubramanyan, J. — 1. Leave granted.

2. This Appeal by Special Leave is by the legal representatives of the original plaintiff in O.S. No.1326 of 1957 on the file of the Munsif, Mohammadabad Gobarn at Azamgarh. The suit was one for a mandatory injunction directing the defendants in the suit to demolish further constructions put up by them and to fill up a well dug by them in the property claimed to belong to the plaintiff. The plaintiff claimed title and possession over the suit property which was described in the plaint and got demarcated in a sketch. The claim of the plaintiff was that the construction had been put up in plot No. 1301/1 Ba in Village Sarhan Kolla Pargana Mahal, District Azamgarh. The defendants resisted the suit essentially on a plea that the constructions put up by them did not lie in plot No. 1301. They, of course, denied the title and possession claimed by the plaintiff over the portions in which the constructions and the well stood.

3. The suit had a chequered career. There were repeated remands of the suit. What is seen is that ultimately the question boiled down to that of identification of the suit property with reference to the disputed portion. Ultimately, in the present round, the trial court decreed the suit holding that the plaintiff was the owner of the suit land which had been identified on the spot and was hence entitled to the reliefs claimed. An appeal filed by the defendants was dismissed holding that the disputed constructions lay in the suit property described in the plaint, that the plaintiff had title to it and that the trial court was hence right in decreeing the suit. Thus, the appeal filed by the defendants was dismissed. The defendants filed a Second Appeal before the High Court of Allahabad. The High Court upheld the finding rendered by the courts below that the plaintiff was the exclusive owner of plot No. 1301/1 Ba. The High Court found that there was no illegality in the approach made by the courts below in arriving at that finding and the finding was based on the evidence on record. But in spite of this finding, the High Court reversed the judgment and decree of the first appellate court and dismissed the suit on a finding that there was no proper identification of the suit property by the plaintiff either in the plaint or at the spot and since the boundaries cannot be ascertained without surveying the adjoining plots, no decree could be granted to the plaintiff as was done by the courts below. The Second Appeal was thus allowed and the suit was dismissed. This is challenged in this appeal by the legal representatives of the plaintiff.

4. It is contended on behalf of the appellants, that the High Court had exceeded its jurisdiction under Section 100 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 in interfering with the finding of fact rendered by the courts below that the suit property had been adequately identified and it has been shown that the disputed constructions were in the portion that belonged to the plaintiff. Though we find some merit in this submission raised on behalf of the appellants, we do not think it necessary to rest our decision on this ground.

5. We find that a commission was issued for demarcating the suit plot No. 1301/1 Ba and the Commissioner showed the disputed area in the map prepared by him. The lower appellate court while considering the question of identification had referred to the description of the boundaries in the plaint, the admissions of one of the defendants as DW1 and the report and plan submitted by the Commissioner. That Court also noticed that the plaintiff had given specific boundaries of the suit land and it was clear from the sketch prepared by the Commissioner that the disputed constructions lay in the suit land and that it belonged to the plaintiff. This was the basis of the affirmance of the decree in favour of the plaintiff by the lower appellate court. In Second Appeal, the learned Judge of the High Court, after




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