A suit for recovery of possession is maintainable without a declaration of title when the plaintiff's ownership is undisputed and the defendant's encroachment is clearly established.

JUDGMENT :

S.R. KRISHNA KUMAR, J.

This Regular First Appeal is filed under Section 96 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 , [Hereinafter referred to as the ‘CPC’], by the appellant/defendant challenging the judgment and decree dated 26.07.2022 passed in O.S.No.70/2015 by the Additional Senior Civil Judge, Jamkhandi, [Hereinafter referred to as the ‘Trial Court’], whereby, the said suit filed by the respondent/plaintiff seeking for a direction to the appellant/defendant to handover vacant possession of the suit schedule property described by the letters “BCEFGAB” in the hand sketch annexed to schedule ‘A’ and schedule ‘B’ to the plaint was decreed in favour of the respondent/plaintiff against the appellant/defendant by the Trial Court.

2. The parties will be referred to as per their ranking before the Trial Court, for the sake of convenience.

3. Brief facts giving rise to the present appeal are that the plaintiff initially instituted the aforesaid suit seeking recovery of possession, mesne profits and other reliefs in relation to suit schedule property, which was originally delineated by the letters “ABCD” in the hand sketch annexed to schedule ‘A’ to the plaint. Subsequently, the plaintiff amended the plaint, redefining the suit schedule property by the letters “BCEFGAB” as per the same. According to the plaintiff, he is the owner of plots bearing CTS Nos.5231A/141, 5231A/142, 5231A/143, 5231A/144 and CTS.No.5231A/145, situated to the west of land bearing R.S.No.63A/4. The adjacent land later converted and numbered as CTS.No.5231/B1, belongs to the defendant and lies to the west of the plaintiff’s property. It was alleged that the defendant, being the owner of the adjacent/adjoining property measuring 70 x 12 = 840 sq.ft., illegally and high handedly encroached upon a portion of the plaintiff’s property. Despite being called upon by the plaintiff to remove the encroachment and hand over possession, the defendant failed to comply. Consequently, the plaintiff instituted the aforesaid suit for recovery of possession, mesne profits and other consequential reliefs in relation to the suit schedule property.

4. As stated supra, the hand sketch depicting the suit schedule property is annexed to the plaint as schedule ‘A’, while the detailed description of the suit schedule property is set out in schedule ‘B’ property to the plaint, as under:

SCHEDULE “A”

Herein the schedule of hand sketch map of suit property is as under:

Entire area of BCEFGAB

SCHEDULE “B”

Herein the description of suit property its boundaries, is as under:

TO EAST: ROAD
TO WEST: Rs No-63A/4 now turned in to NA bearing CTS No-5231/B of defendant and CTS No-5231A/145.
TO NORTH: ROAD
TO SOUTH: RS NO-62 Agril land.

Hence the schedules

JAMKHANDI
DATE: 08/06/2015

Sd/-
PLAINTIFF

Amended schedules filed on 21.07.2019

5. As can be seen from schedule ‘A’ and ‘B’ to the plaint, the portion of land delineated by the letters “ABCD” was initially claimed by the respondent/plaintiff. Subsequently, plaint was amended to include the entire extent of land delineated by the letters “BCEFGAB”, comprising of four plots, namely CTS Nos.5231A/141, 5231A/142, 5231A/143, 5231A/144, which are said to be situated to the east of the defendant’s property bearing R.S.No.63A/4 (new CTS.No.5231/B1). Similarly, the plaintiff has filed another suit in O.S.No.58/2014 against the appellant/defendant herein, in relation to plot bearing No.5231A/145, which is situated to the north of his property. The said suit has been renumbered as O.S.No.142/2021 and is currently pending adjudication. It is therefore, clear that the subject matter of the present suit, as per the plaint schedule, comprises four plots bearing Nos.5231A/141, 5231A/142, 5231A/143 and 5231A/144 as described in schedule ‘A’ and schedule ‘B’ to the plaint.

6. The defendant filed his written statement, inter alia, disputed and denied the various allegations and claim made by the plaintiff. In paragraph No.5 of the written statement, the defendant admitted that t