JUDGMENT :

1. Heard the learned senior counsel Mr. R. G. Ramani with Mr. P. Kakodkar, for the appellants and Mr. Arun Bras De Sa, learned counsel for the respondents.

2. On 3rd April, 2009, the present appeal came to be admitted by formulating the single substantial question of law to the following effect:

'Whether the first appellate court fell in error in refusing declaration because Francisco Antonio Lucio Pereira and Hermogeneus Sebastiao Pereira were not parties.'

3. The sequence of events leading to the formulating of the said question of law can be briefly narrated as under:

The plaintiffs who are the appellants in the Appeal claim to be owners in possession of the suit property siutated at Village Arossim Taluka Mormugao bearing Survey No.72/1 and also owned other properties including part of a property known as Aframento bearing survey no.73/2 admeasuring 76625 sq.mts situated in the same village. The property vide survey no. 72/1 was inclusive of the alleged illegally occupied property of the defendants, by dispossessing the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs sold the total area of 800 sq. mts to one Francisco Antonio Lucio Pereira and Hermogeneus Sebastiao Pereira and an area of 600