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2017 Supreme(Kar) 1422

IN THE HIGH COURT OF KARNATAKA
JAYANT PATEL, S. SUJATHA, JJ.
Deputy Conservator of Forests Office of The Deputy Conservator - Appellant
Versus
C. Srinivas (Since Deceased) By His L.Rs. - Respondent
R.S.A. No. 588 of 2011
Decided On : 11-07-2017

Advocates Appeared:
For the Appellant :Sri Vasanth V. Fernandes, Government Advocate.
For the Respondents:Sri. K. Sreedhar, Advocate and Sri. M.S. Rajendra Prasad, Senior Counsel.

Headnote:SPECIFIC RELIEF ACT, 1963 - Section 34 - Suit for declaration, possession and permanent injunction - Grant certificate issued to father of plaintiff - Defendant, Forest Department pleading land handed over by Government for developing bird sanctuary, parks etc. - Absence of evidence to prove it - Plaintiff exhibiting order of Special Tahsildar granting deemed permission to convert suit land from agriculture to non-agriculture - Order including map and extent of area - Order confirming grant to father at undisputed period of time prior to institution of suit - Plaintiff is entitled to decree of declaration.

ORDER :

S. SUJATHA, J.

1. The appellants/defendants have preferred this Regular Second Appeal under section 100 of Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 challenging the judgment and decree passed by the II Additional District Judge, Mysuru in R. A. No. 7/2004 whereby the judgment and decree passed by the Principal Civil Judge (Sr.Dn), Mysuru in O.S.No.321/1995 is confirmed.

2. For the sake of convenience, the parties are referred to as per their rankings in the trial Court.

3. Original Plaintiff filed O.S.No.321/1995 against the defendants for declaration, possession and permanent injunction, mesne profits and costs. It was contended that plaintiff was the owner and in possession of the landed property in Sy.No.82, New Nos. 192, 193 and 194, totally measuring 17 acres 20 guntas described in the schedule to the plaint; this land was granted to his father by the 3rd defendant vide grant certificate dated 10.4.1956, the father of the plaintiff was put in possession of the same. After the death of his father in the year 1981, the plaintiff has become absolute owner of the suit schedule property. It was further contended that defendants 1 and 2 interfered with his peaceful possession of the suit schedule property by making attempts to plant trees in the land. The plaintiff complained to the defendants in writing, accordingly he was called upon to produce certain documents which were produced with, as demanded. Despite the same, as no action was taken by the defendants, the plaintiff filed Writ Petition before this Court, which came to be disposed of, directing the defendants to consider and dispose of the representations filed by the plaintiff within a period of two months. Thereafter, several requests were made by the plaintiff not to proceed with the planting of saplings in the suit property, but the same not having yielded any positive results, O.S. 321/1995 was filed before the trial Court, which came to be decreed as prayed for. Aggrieved by the same, defendants preferred R.A.No.7/2004 before the lower Appellate Court. In the said appeal proceedings, an application was filed by the defendants under Order 16, Rule 7, CPC seeking permission to examine the Tahasildar, Mysuru Taluk and for direction to the Tahasildar to produce certain documents. The Appellate Judge remanded the matter to the Trial Court to provide an opportunity to both the parties to adduce additional evidence. The said judgment and order dated 16.03.2009 was challenged by the plaintiffs in M.F.A.No.34/2009 and this Court by judgment and order dated 26.11.2009, set aside the judgment dated 16.03.2009 observing that the Court has to consider the question whether grounds have been made by defendants as provided under Order 41, Rule 27 of CPC to adduce additional evidence. After remand by this Court, the learned Appellate Judge considered the case in the light of the observations made by this Court and dismissed the appeal. Hence, this second appeal. During the pendency of the appeal, original plaintiff died and his legal representatives are brought on record as respondents.

4. The arguments of the learned Government Advocate Sri. Vasanth V. Fernandes appearing for the appellants/defendants is two fold. Firstly, the challenge is made to the grant certificate-Ex.P2, not being genuine and valid. It was contended that the lower Appellate Court in para 29 of the impugned judgment though observed Ex.P2-grant certificate was incomplete and legally not valid, for the reasons that the relevant columns of the grant certificate being filled by pencil; the certificate number being written in pencil; boundaries being not mentioned and thus expressing some doubts about the veracity of the same, proceeded to dismiss the appeal on the ground that the defendants have not challenged the grant certificate-Ex.P2. It was contended that the lower Appellate Court grossly erred in not examining the veracity of grant certificate dehors no such defense taken by the defendants in the written statement.




















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