IMPORTANT POINT
Administrative Order - validity.

JUDGMENT

T.S. Thakur, J.:-

Leave granted.

2. This appeal arises out of a judgment and order dated 26th December, 2007 passed by the High Court of Gujarat at Ahmedabad whereby Civil Second Appeal No.17 of 2007 filed by the appellant has been dismissed and the judgment and decree passed by the Courts below affirmed. The facts giving rise to the filing of this appeal may be summarised as under:

3. A parcel of land admeasuring 1891.64 square meters situated in Sector 30, Gandhidham in the State of Gujarat was granted in favour of Smt. Pushpa Pramod Shah-respondent No.2 in this appeal on a long-term lease basis. A formal lease-deed was also executed and registered in favour of the lessee stipulating the terms and conditions on which the lessee was to hold the land demised in her favour. The respondent-lessee it appears committed default in the payment of the lease rent stipulated in the lease-deed with the result that the appellant-lessor issued notices dated 12th December, 1975 and 17th July, 1976 calling upon the lessee to pay the outstanding amount with interest and stating that the lease of the plot in question shall stand determined under Clause 4 thereof and possession of the demised premises taken over by the appellant-Port Trust in case the needful is not done.

4. In response to the notices aforementioned the lessee by communication dated 18th November, 1976 requested the appellant-Port Trust to permit her to resell the plots for a symbolic consideration and to obtain the refund of the instalment amount already paid to the Port Trust. The letter sought to justify the default in the payment of arrears on the ground of an untimely demise of her husband, resulting in cancellation of expansion programme including any further acquisition of land by the lessee.

5. Failure of the lessee to remit the outstanding instalment amount culminated in the termination of the lease by the appellant-Port Trust in terms of an order dated 8th August, 1977 w.e.f. 13th December, 1978. A panchnama prepared on 14th December, 1978 evidenced the takeover of possession of the plot in question by the appellant-Port Trust, copy whereof was forwarded even to the lessee along with a certificate that the possession had been taken over by the Assistant Estate Manager of the appellant-Port Trust under his letter dated 20th December, 1978.

6. On receipt of the letter aforementioned the lessee by her letter dated 22nd February, 1979 requested the appellant-Port Trust to refund the amount and in case a refund could not be made, to return the possession of the plot to her. One year and four months after the issue of the said letter the lessee-respondent No.2 herein filed Civil Suit No.152 of 1980 in the Court of Civil Judge, Gandhidham, in which she prayed for a decree for permanent injunction restraining the defendants, its officers and servants from interfering with her peaceful possession over the plot in question. The immediate provocation for the filing of the said suit was provided by the appellant-Port Trust proposing to re-auction the plot in question. The plaintiff’s case in the suit was that she was in actual physical possession of the plot which rendered the proposed auction thereof unreasonable. An interim application was also filed in the said suit in which the Court granted an ex-parte order of injunction that was subsequently vacated by a detailed order passed on 5th September, 1980 holding that the plaintiff was not entitled to the relief of injunction. It is common ground that suit No.152 of 1980 was eventually dismissed on 18th January, 1985 for non- prosecution.

7. Almost six years after the dismissal of the first suit, another Suit No.126 of 1991 was filed, this time by respondent No.1-Hargovind Jasraj against respondent No.2-Smt. Pushpa Pramod Shah for a permanent prohibitory injunction restraining defendant No.2-lessee of the plot, her agents, servants and representatives from interfering with the plaintiff’s possession over the plot in disp