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2017 Supreme(Tri) 96

IN THE HIGH COURT OF TRIPURA, AGARTALA
S. TALAPATRA, J.
Sri Harekrishna Roy Chowdhury, son of late Dhirendra Ch. Roy Chowdhury - Appellant
Vs.
Sri Debdas Roy Chowdhury, son of late Dhirendra Ch. Roy Chowdhury - Respondent
RSA No.22 of 2012
Decided On : 13-01-2017

Advocates Appeared:
For the appellant :Mr. D. Deb, Advocate
For the respondents:Mr. A.K. Bhowmik, Sr. Advocate, Ms. A. Banik, Advocate

The main legal point established in the judgment is the determination of the encroachment of land, the reliability of the surveyor's report, and the application of the limitation period for filing the suit.

Headnote:

Limitation - Property Dispute - Civil Procedure Code - Section 75, Order 26 Rule 9, Order 26 Rule 10(2), Rule 230 to 238 of the Civil Code Rules & Orders of Gauhati High Court - The court decided on the encroachment of land, the reliability of the surveyor's report, and the limitation period for filing the suit.

Fact of the Case:

The plaintiff and the defendants, full-blood brothers, had a property dispute over land that was mutually partitioned. The plaintiff claimed that the defendant encroached upon his land and sought a decree for recovery of possession and permanent injunction.

Finding of the Court:

The trial court found in favor of the plaintiff, declaring his right, title, and interest in the land and granting a decree for recovery of possession and permanent injunction. The first appellate court affirmed the decision but passed a conditional decree of recovery.

Issues: The issues included the legality of the suit, ownership of the land, mutation, encroachment, joint ownership, entitlement to decree, and relief for the parties.

Ratio Decidendi: The court found that the suit was not time-barred as there was no adverse possession by the defendant. The reliability of the surveyor's report was questioned, and the court set aside the decree related to the encroachment of land and the mandatory injunction for removing the construction.

Final Decision: The appeal was partly allowed, and the court set aside the decree related to the encroachment of land and the mandatory injunction for removing the construction.

Judgment and order :

1. This is an appeal against the judgment of affirmance dated 10.02.2012 delivered in T.A. No. 45 of 2011 by the Additional District Judge, Court No. 5, West Tripura, Agartala, by the defendant No.1.

2. Having proposed, this court formulated two sets of substantial questions of law, one on 06.06.2012 and another on 12.09.2016.

By the order dated 06.06.2012 the following substantial question of law was initially formulated for hearing the appeal:

“Whether the courts below committed error by failing to decide the question of limitation, after framing issue on the said point?”

Subsequently, when the hearing commenced, at the insistence of the appellant, by the order dated 12.09.2016, the following substantial question of law was formulated in addition to the earlier substantial of law:

“Whether the impugned judgment has been passed without considering the evidence of compromise decree of partition [Exhibit-2] and the hand sketch map of solenama [Exhibit-3] or the judgment has been passed solely on the report of the Survey Commission?”

3. For having the prospective of the challenge against the concurrent finding of fact, the relevant fact is required to be introduced briefly at the outset. The plaintiff and the defendants in the suit being T.S. No. 65 of 2005 are full-blood brothers and they inherited the paternal property comprised in Agartala township No. 15 which has been described in the Schedule-1 of the plaint .

4. There is no dispute that the said property was mutually partitioned by the registered partition deed No. 1-4851 dated 06.04.1970 and they had taken possession of the land identified for each of the brothers, the plaintiff and the defendants. The said land was mutated in the year 1975. Since there was some disputes between the plaintiff and the defendants in the year 1986, a suit being T.S. 68 of 1986 was instituted but the said suit was finally come to an end, based on a compromise struck between those three brothers. A compromised decree with a map delineating their share more categorically was passed in accordance with law. Even in this regard, there is no dispute between the plaintiff and the defendants. The case of the plaintiff is that the defendant No.1, the appellant herein, constructed a residential house on his plot in the year 1990 encroaching upon two inch of land of the common pathway and the said building was subsequently converted into a shopping complex in the name and style of Rajdhani Market. Thereafter the defendant No.1 constructed first floor and the second floor on the existing building. The defendant No.1, while constructing his building, did not leave any space towards the western side. As a result, he could not carry out plastering work in the western side of his building. It is also stated that there was a vacant space between the building of the plaintiff and the defendant No.1 and the said vacant place was being used by the plaintiff and his tenant in the ground floor of the two storied building for their ingress and egress.

5. The defendant No.1 never raised any dispute over the said land of the plaintiff as it is always under the possession of the plaintiff. In the year 2002, suddenly the defendant No.1 started claiming the said vacant land, owned and possessed by the plaintiff. The defendant No.1 also bought some building materials, brick and sand etc to construct the boundary wall by force, but due to timely resistance he could not succeed. The plaintiff has further pleaded that the defendant No.1 by a registered Deed No. 1-6219 dated 06.08.1979 sold to the plaintiff an area of land measuring 2 kranta and while making the construction, the defendant No.1 encroached the portion of the land which had been sold to the plaintiff. The plaintiff many a times requested the defendant No.1 to vacate the said land but it fell on deaf ear. The plaintiff has further pleaded that after the solenama was executed, the defendant No.1, by the registered sale deed, sold to the plaintiff a



















































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