Point of Law: There are two stages relating to documents. One is the stage when all the documents on which the parties rely are filed by them in Court. The next stage is when the documents are proved and formally tendered in evidence. It is at this later stage that the Court has to decide whether they should be admitted or rejected. If they are admitted and proved then the seal of the Court is put on them giving certain details laid down by law, otherwise the documents are returned to the party who produced them with an endorsement therein to that effect

JUDGMENT :

1. This litigation is between a statutory Corporation being a wholly owned Government Company under the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956 and a private individual. In this litigation, the public exchequer of approximately an amount of Rs.700/- Crore is at stake. Having regard to the high stake involved in this litigation, it was expected of the appellant Corporation to pursue this litigation very seriously, but unfortunately, it realized its seriousness only after the matter reached to this High Court by way of the present second appeal under Section 100 of the CPC (for short “the CPC”). It was also expected of the Trial Court and the First Appellate Court to conduct this litigation in a proper manner with all seriousness having regard to the public exchequer involved, but unfortunately, even the two Courts below dealt with this litigation in a very casual and slipshod manner.

2. This second appeal under Section 100 of the CPC is at the instance of the original defendant No.1, namely, Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd., and is directed against the judgment and order passed by the Addl. District Judge, Narmada at Rajpipla dated 28th August, 2014 in the Regular Civil Appeal No.20 of 2010 filed by the appellant herein against the judgment and decree passed by the Principal Senior Civil Judge, Narmada at Rajpipla dated 10th May, 2010 in the Regular Civil Suit No.142 of 2006 instituted by the respondent No.1 herein (original plaintiff).

3. For the sake of convenience, the appellant herein shall be referred to as the defendant and the respondent No.1 herein shall be referred to as the original plaintiff.

4. The suit instituted by the plaintiff came to be partly allowed, declaring the plaintiff as the owner of the suit land situated at the village Gadher; with the ancillary relief in the form of monetary compensation of the amount equivalent to the market value of the suit property with 60% interest from 2003 onwards. The first appeal preferred by the appellant herein in the Court of the District Judge, Narmada came to be dismissed, whereas the cross appeal filed by the plaintiff came to be partly allowed.

5. Being dissatisfied with the above, the defendant is here before this Court with the present second appeal under Section 100 of the CPC.

6. Before I proceed to give a fair idea as regards the claim of the plaintiff and the reliefs granted by the two courts below, it would be appropriate to give some idea as regards one earlier round of litigation between the parties.

7. As noted above, the defendant is a Company. The Government of Gujarat established the defendant Corporation as a wholly owned Government Company under the provisions of the Companies Act, 1956 (for short “the Act, 1956”) to undertake the execution of the Sardar Sarovar Project-Interstate Multi Purpose Project of four states, namely, Madhyapradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan for construction of a major dam on the river Narmada in the State of Gujarat. The Government of Gujarat executed a part of the project, and later it decided to form a Nigam and it passed a resolution accordingly with a preamble.

8. Couple of decades back, there were eight villages in the Nandod Taluka of the Bharuch District and those were known as the Gopalpura Estate. They were a part of the erstwhile Princely State of the Rajpipla. About 300 years ago, Mulraj was the ruler of Rajpipla State. He had four sons (i) Bhaisinhji (ii) Surmalji (iii) Bharmalji and (iv) Hamsaji. The plaintiff in the present case is the son of late Bharmalji. Bhaisinhji became the ruler of Rajpipla upon the death of Mulraj. The three sons of Mulraj were given Jivai for their maintenance. Bharmalji was given eight villages for his maintenance. The village Gopalpura was the principal amongst them. The other seven villages were, namely, Naghatpor, Zer, Gadher, Jetpore, Shir, Navagam and Jantar. The vi