IMPORTANT POINT
Revenue courts being neither equipped nor competent to effectively adjudicate on allegations of fraud; challenge to order passed by such courts on the basis of false and non-existent compromise is not barred under Order XXIII Rule 3-A.

JUDGMENT

Aftab Alam, J.

1. Leave granted.

2. This appeal is directed against the judgment and order dated November 11, 2003 passed by the Allahabad High Court by which it allowed the writ petition filed by respondent nos. 1 and 2, set aside the order passed by the District Judge, affirming the order of the Munsif, and held that the suit filed by the appellant was not maintainable being barred in terms of Order XXIII Rule 3-A of the Code of Civil Procedure.

3. The appellant filed a suit (No. 43 of 1980) in the court of Munsif, Karwi (Banda) seeking a declaration that the decree passed by the Assistant Collector, Class-I, in a suit under sections 176, 178 and 182 of the U.P. Zamindari Abolition & Land Reforms Act was fraudulent, inoperative and not binding upon him. According to the appellant, the defendants had instituted the suit before the Assistant Collector in which his father namely Chunkai was made as one of the opposite party. In that suit, a compromise petition was filed on October 7, 1971 with the fake signature of Chunkai and on that basis a compromise decree finally came to be passed on April 25, 1979. It is the case of the appellant that no notice of the suit was ever served upon his father Chunkai. He never appeared in the proceeding and was not even aware of it. He did not sign any compromise petition and his alleged signature on the compromise petition dated October 7, 1971 was faked. He had died much earlier and was not even alive in 1979 when the decree was passed. The appellant, accordingly, sought a declaration that the decree dated April 25, 1979 passed by the Assistant Collector, Class-I, Karwi, may be cancelled or it may be declared as void ab initio, inoperative and not binding upon him.

4. The defendants (respondents 1 and 2 before this Court) filed a written statement in which they questioned the maintainability of the suit as well.

It was contended on their behalf that as the suit related to agricultural lands it was beyond the jurisdiction and competence of the civil court and it could only be tried by the revenue authorities. The Munsif by his order dated October 1, 1985 upheld the defendants’ objection and held that the suit was not maintainable before a civil court. Against the order passed by the Munsif, the appellant preferred an appeal (M.C.A.No.21 of 1985) which was allowed by the judgment and order dated April 14, 1987 passed by the Additional District Judge, Karwi, (Banda). The Additional District Judge rightly pointed out that the suit filed by the appellant was based on the allegation that the decree passed by the Assistant Collector was based on a fraudulent compromise petition and it did not involve any adjudication of rights or interests in the agricultural lands. Hence, the suit was maintainable before a civil court. It, accordingly, set aside the order passed by the Munsif and directed him to proceed with the suit in accordance with law.

5. When the matter came before the Munsif on remand, the defendants once again objected to the maintainability of the suit, this time raising the contention that it was barred under the provisions of Order XXIII Rule 3-A of the Code of Civil Procedure. The Munsif by his order dated January 7, 1988 dismissed the objection and found and held that the suit was maintainable. The defendants-respondents took the matter in revision (Civil Revision No. Nil of 1988) which was dismissed by the District Judge, Banda, by his order dated February 17, 1988. Against the orders passed by the Munsif and the District Judge, the defendants preferred a writ petition before the High Court and the High Court, as noted above, allowed the writ petition holding that the suit was not maintainable. It is a brief order in which the High Court referred to the provisions of Order XXIII Rule 3-A, and relying upon a decision of the Allahabad High Court allowed the writ petition.

6. It is true that a compromise forming the basis of the decree can only be questioned before the same c