The Apex Court on 04.02.2019, in RAM LAL & ORS. Appellant (s) VS. SALIG RAM & ORS[1]., had allowed the appeal that had been made against the High Court of Himachal Pradesh’s decree and judgment which had set aside the District Judge’s decree and judgment while dismissing the plaintiffs-appellants suit regarding the prohibitory injunction /the recovery of possession of the disputed land.
FACTS:
The appellants had been alleged to have encroached over the disputed land by the defendants. The suit was dismissed by the Trial Court although additional issues were remitted to the Trial Court upon the issue regarding whether the defendants had committed encroachment over the land and to what extent .As such, a direction for appointing a Local Commissioner was given to the Trial Court for deciding the issue upon the objections raised in the Commissioner’s report that were eventually rejected and hence, resulting in the Trial Court returning its findings upon the additional issues favoring of the plaintiffs thereby, allowing the appeal by the Appellate Court and decreeing the suit.
The High Court on the other hand, in the second appeal had found that the demarcation had not been carried out as per the applicable instruction by the Local Commissioner, thus upholding that the report was unreliable while citing that there had been no evidence which would prove that the defendants had caused encroachment over the disputed land, thereby allowing the appeal.
ISSUE: Was the High Court justified in setting aside the First Appellate Court’s decree?
DECISION HELD BY THE APEX COURT:
The Apex Court while allowing the appeal held that it disapproved the High Court’s approach wherein after rejecting the report of the Commission, it directly had dismissed the suit without giving regard to the other evidences. Thus , a direction was given to issue a fresh Commission and directing the Trial Court for deciding the suit afresh upon these issues which were initially framed as well as the additional ones after taking the Local Commissioner’s report afresh and providing an opportunity to both parties for the submission of objections.
[1] Full Judgment:
[embeddoc url=”https://www.sci.gov.in/supremecourt/2008/7784/7784_2008_Judgement_04-Feb-2019.pdf” download=”all”]