The genuineness of a consent decree cannot be doubted solely based on the referral of the matter to Lok Adalat, and allegations of fraud must be substantiated with evidence.

JUDGMENT :

M.R. Shah, J.

1. Feeling aggrieved and dissatisfied with the impugned judgment and order passed by the High Court of Karnataka at Bengaluru in Writ Petition No. 35073 of 2015 by which the High Court has set aside the consent decree passed in the Lok Adalat and consequently has restored the original suit, original plaintiff has preferred the present appeal.

2. The facts leading to the present appeal in a nutshell are as under:-

2.1 That the appellant herein – original plaintiff instituted Original Suit No. 94 of 2006 in the Court of learned Civil Judge (Sr. Dn.) at Kunigal for specific performance of the agreement to sell/contract. The suit originally was filed against three defendants, however, one of the defendants – defendant No. 3 came to be deleted by the plaintiff. The suit came up for hearing before the learned Trial Court on 18.08.2007. The plaintiff and the original defendant Nos. 1 and 2 submitted an application under Order XXIII Rule 3 CPC, in which it was stated that the parties have settled the dispute and it was requested to pass a consent decree. The defendant Nos. 1 and 2 admitted execution of the agreement to sell dated 26.04.2005 in favour of the plaintiff and also admitted receipt of Rs. 30,000/- towards the part sale consideration. In the application under Order XXIII Rule 3 CPC, it was specifically stated that the defendant Nos. 1 and 2 have received the remaining sale consideration amount of Rs. 70,000/- from the plaintiff. Therefore, it was requested to pass the decree as prayed for in the suit as well as in terms of the compromise petition.

2.2 The said consent compromise/compromise deed/compromise petition was signed by the Advocates for the respective parties. However, instead of decreeing the suit passing a consent decree though requested, the learned Trial Court referred the matter to Lok Adalat. Before the Lok Adalat, which was presided over by the very learned Civil Judge (Sr. Dn.), Kunigal, the Advocates for the plaintiff as well as the original defendant Nos. 1 and 2 remained present and prayed to pass a consent decree as per the application under Order XXIII Rule 3 CPC. Consequently, by judgment and decree dated 27.08.2007, the learned Trial Court passed the consent decree.

2.3 That thereafter the original plaintiff filed the Execution Petition No. 88 of 2013 to execute the consent decree and for seeking execution of the sale deed in his favour. That thereafter, the defendant Nos. 1 and 2 filed the writ petition before the High Court being Writ Petition No. 35073 of 2015 challenging the consent decree passed by the Court of Lok Adalat on the ground that the consent decree was obtained by fraud.

2.4 By the impugned judgment and order, the learned Single of the High Court has allowed the said writ petition and set aside the consent decree passed by the learned Trial Court passed in the Lok Adalat. This is mainly on the ground that looking to the compromise amongst the parties and the dates and events, prima facie it is evident that counsel for the plaintiff must have mislead the Trial Court in obtaining the decree on 18.8.2007 while referring the matter to Lok-Adalat r/w the compromise and drawing up of decree. By observing so, the High Court has set aside the consent decree passed by the learned Trial Court passed in the Lok Adalat and directed to restore the original suit to the file and the learned Trial Court has directed to re-commence the proceedings from the date of referring the matter to the Lok Adalat.

2.5 Feeling aggrieved and dissatisfied with the impugned judgment and order passed by the High Court, the original plaintiff has preferred the present appeal.

3. Learned counsel appearing on behalf of the appellant – original plaintiff has vehemently submitted that in fact the plaintiff and the defendant Nos. 1 and 2 jointly submitted the application under Order XXIII Rule 3 CPC before the learned Trial Court and requested the learned Trial Court to pass a consent decree. It is submitted