IMPORTANT POINTS
Lease of 25 years without sanction of the Commissioner is null and void.
No civil suit in relation to any action taken in good faith under Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 is maintainable.
To attract section 14 of Limitation act, 1963 matter in issue in both the earlier and the later proceeding must be the same and ought to relate to the same cause of action and for the same relief.

JUDGMENT :

DINESH MAHESHWARI, J.

Introduction

1. In this appeal by special leave, the plaintiff-appellant, said to be a partnership firm, has called in question the common judgment and decree dated 26.02.2007 in O.S.A. Nos. 193 of 2002 and 178 of 2003 (with C.M.P. No. 8947 of 2006) whereby, the Division Bench of High Court of Judicature at Madras, while allowing the appeal filed by the defendant-State and while dismissing the appeal filed by the plaintiff-appellant, has reversed the judgment and decree dated 15.10.2001, as passed by the learned Single Judge in C.S. No. 561 of 1998 and has dismissed the appellant’s suit for recovery of damages.

1.1. This matter, arising out of the aforesaid suit for recovery of damages, carries a peculiar and chequered history of its own, with assortment of several undisputed actual facts, a few disputed facts, and varied rounds of litigations. In a brief outline of the subject matter, it may be noticed that the plaintiff-appellant had allegedly taken certain parcels of land [Comprising field Nos. 805/1, 805/3, 805/4, 806, 807, 808, 809 in Kalakkadu Village and field No. 495 in Malayadipudur Village (Nanguneri Taluk, Tirunelveli District) in all admeasuring 197.36 acres - Hereinafter referred to as the land in question or the subject land] on lease (initially for a period of 5 years in the years 1971-1972 and later, for a period of 25 years in the years 1977-1978) from its owner Sri Nanamamalai Jeer Mutt, Nanguneri [Hereinafter referred to as ‘the Mutt’] for plantation and co-related purposes. The case of the plaintiff-appellant has been that by virtue of a notification dated 06.03.1976, as issued by the Government of Tamil Nadu, the land in question was proposed to be included in a wild life sanctuary under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972 [Hereinafter referred to as ‘the Act’ or ‘the Act of 1972’] and several propositions for award of compensation were actively considered by the authorities concerned, who were also under the mandate of the High Court to finalise the award of compensation at the earliest. The grievance of the plaintiff-appellant has been that on one hand, the land in question was not allowed to be used because of the proposal for its acquisition for wild life sanctuary and on the other hand, no amount of compensation was paid; and then, the defendant-respondent chose to exclude the land in question from the limits of the said wild life sanctuary by way of an order issued on 19.11.1993. The plaintiff-appellant and the Mutt challenged the said order dated 19.11.1993 in the High Court by way of a writ petition. On 13.09.1995, a learned Single Judge of the High Court allowed the writ petition so filed by the appellant and the Mutt but the Division Bench, in its judgment and order dated 18.09.1997, set aside the order so passed by the Single Judge and dismissed the writ petition while upholding the powers of the State Government to withdraw from the notification in question. The Division Bench, however, left it open for the writ petitioners ‘to take appropriate civil action for quantifying their damages’; and also observed that for the purpose of such an action, it was open for the writ petitioners ‘to rely on the provisions of the Limitation Act for excluding the period during which they had been prosecuting the matter in this Court’. Thereafter, the plaintiff-appellant instituted the civil suit in question against the defendant-respondent, seeking recovery of damages to the tune to Rs. 1,31,95,000/- together with interest @ 18% per annum, for having been allegedly deprived of the use of the land in question on the proposition for acquisition. A learned Single Judge of the High Court, by way of the judgment and decree dated 15.10.2001, partly decreed the suit, holding the plaintiff entitled to a sum of Rs. 86,88,000/- together with interest @ 9% per annum from the date of suit