High Court under Section 100 CPC cannot re-appreciate evidence absent substantial question of law; admitted receipt shifts burden to defendant.

JUDGMENT :

K. Murali Shankar, J.

The Second Appeal is directed against the judgment and decree made in A.S.No.41 of 2022 dated 06.01.2023 on the file of the Principal District Court, Tirunelveli, reversing the judgment and decree passed in O.S.No.300 of 2017 dated 29.11.2021 on the file of the Additional Subordinate Court, Tirunelveli.

2. The appellant is the defendant. The respondent as plaintiff filed a suit for recovery of Rs.5 lakhs due by the appellant / defendant with interest at 12% per annum from the date of the suit till payment and costs. The appellant / defendant filed his written statement and contested the suit.

3. For the sake of convenience and brevity, the parties hereinafter will be referred to as per their status / ranking in the trial Court.

4. The learned Additional Subordinate Judge, Tirunelveli, after framing necessary issues and after full trial, passed a judgment and decree dated 29.11.2021 dismissing the suit. Aggrieved by the dismissal of the suit, the plaintiff preferred an appeal in A.S.No.41 of 2022 and the learned Principal District Judge, Tirunelveli, upon considering the materials available on record and on hearing the arguments of both the sides, passed the impugned judgment and decree dated 06.01.2023 allowing the appeal and thereby setting aside the judgment and decree of the trial Court and granted the relief sought for. Challenging the impugned judgment and decree, the defendant has preferred the present Second Appeal.

5. At the outset, it is necessary to refer the mandate of Hon'ble Supreme Court for High Courts in deciding the second appeal under Section 100 of the Civil Procedure Code, given in the case of Gurnam Singh (dead) by LRs., and others Vs. Lehna Singh (dead) by LRs. reported in AIR 2019 SC 1441, that the jurisdiction of the High Court in an appeal under Section 100 of the Code of Civil Procedure is strictly confined to the case involving substantial question of law and the relevant passage is extracted hereunder:

“18. Before parting with the present judgment, we remind the High Courts that the jurisdiction of the High Court, in an appeal under Section 100 of the CPC, is strictly confined to the case involving substantial question of law and while deciding the second appeal under Section 100 of the CPC, it is not permissible for the High Court to re-appreciate the evidence on record and interfere with the findings recorded by the Courts below and/or the First Appellate Court and if the First Appellate Court has exercised its discretion in a judicial manner, its decision cannot be recorded as suffering from an error either of law or of procedure requiring interference in Second Appeal. We have noticed and even as repeatedly observed by this Court and even in the case of Narayanan Rajendran v. Lekshmy Sarojini, (2009) 5 SCC 264, despite the catena of decisions of this Court and even the mandate under Section 100 of the CPC, the High Courts under Section 100 CPC are disturbing the concurrent findings of facts and/or even the findings recorded by the First Appellate Court, either without formulating the substantial question of law or on framing erroneous substantial question of law.”

6. The Hon'ble Supreme Court in the case of Chandrabhan Vs. Saraswati and others reported in 2022 SCC OnLine SC 1273 has specifically held that right of appeal is not automatic and right of appeal is conferred by statute and when statute confers a limited right of appeal restricted only to cases which involve substantial questions of law, it is not open to the High Court to sit in appeal over the factual findings arrived at by the First Appellate Court and the Hon'ble Supreme Court summarized the principles relating to Section 100 C.P.C., which are as follows;

“(i) An inference of fact from the recitals or contents of a document is a q