Babu Lal Sharma vs State Of M.P

Babu Lal Sharma .... Appellant

Versus

State of Madhya Pradesh .... Respondent

JUDGMENT

Dr. Mukundakam Sharma, J.

1. By this judgment and order we propose to dispose of this appeal which has

been filed by the appellant-plaintiff being aggrieved by the judgment and

order passed in the second appeal by the High Court of Madhya Pradesh.

2. The appellant-plaintiff filed a suit seeking for a decree for declaration of

his title in respect of the suit property comprising Khasra No. 1709, Rakba

No. 1.84 situated at village Bagota, Tehsil Narsinghgarh Purva, District

Chhattarpur, Madhya Pradesh. The case as pleaded in the plaint was that

the aforesaid land earlier comprised of an area of 1.84 acres of land which was under the title and possession of Mahadev Prasad Richharia, the father

of the appellant-plaintiff out of which some portion was under the physical

use of Mahadev Prasad Richharia on which a house was constructed and

some other portion was surrounded by `Bari'. It was also alleged that

from the aforesaid Khasra No. 1709 consisting of 1.84 acres of area, 0.53

decimal of land was sold to one Chhedilal Gupta in the year 1945 and that

Mahadev Prasad Richharia, the father of the appellant-plaintiff had

executed a sale deed to that effect in favour of Chhedilal Gupta and had

also handed over the possession to him on the date of sale of the land. It

was further alleged that after the aforesaid sale of land the remaining

portion of disputed land i.e. 1.31 acres of land remained under the title and

possession of Mahadev Prasad Richharia, the father of the appellant-

plaintiff. After the death of Mahadev Prasad Richharia, Babu Lal Sharma,

the appellant-plaintiff became his successor and, therefore, owned and

possessed the said disputed area of 1.31 acres. Subsequently, however, it

came to his knowledge that the Patwari of village Bagota without any

order of the competent authority entered the disputed land as Government

land in the revenue records somewhere in the year 1953-54 although the

said land was being shown in the name of Mahadev Prasad Richharia, the

2 father of the appellant-plaintiff in the revenue records for the year 1953-

54.

3. Consequently, an application for rectification was moved by the appellant-

plaintiff in the revenue court alleging that since the entry with respect to

the disputed land was entered in the revenue record as Government land

by Patwari of village Bagota without the order of the competent authority

which fact became known to the appellant-plaintiff only in the year 1984,

the said record ought to be rectified. The said application filed by the

appellant-plaintiff was, however, rejected by the revenue court on

20.04.1984.

4. An appeal against the aforesaid order was filed by the appellant-plaintiff in

the court of Sub-Divisional Officer which was allowed by an order dated

26.06.1988 and the matter was remanded back to the court of Tehsildar,

Chhattarpur for fresh consideration. The Tehsildar, Chhattarpur

reconsidered the matter but, however, passed an order on 10.11.1995

against the appellant-plaintiff.

5. Being aggrieved by the aforesaid order of Tehsildar, Chhattarpur an appeal

was filed in the court of Sub-Divisional Officer which was dismissed by

the Sub-Divisional Officer.

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6. Consequently, the appellant-plaintiff filed a suit in the court of 2nd Civil

Judge, Class-I, Chhattarpur, Madhya Pradesh bearing Civil Suit No. 96-A

of 1998 seeking for a decree of declaration of title, ownership and

possession. In the said suit it was alleged that 0.53 decimal of land was

sold to one Chhedilal Gupta by Mahadev Prasad Richharia, the father of

the appellant-plaintiff in the year 1945 from Khasra No. 1709 consisting of

1.84 acres of land. A notice under Section 248 of the Madhya Pradesh

State Revenue Code was issued to Chhedilal Gupta when he started

construction of a house on the aforesaid land. In the said case an order

was passed imposing a fine of Rs. 1500/- along with an order of eviction

from the land against Chhedilal Gupta.

7. As against the aforesaid order of fine and eviction Dr. Pannalal Gupta, the

son of Chhedilal Gupta filed a civil suit for declaration of title in the civil

court. Although the trial court dismissed the aforesaid civil suit, the first

appellate court granted a decree in favour of Dr. Pannalal Gupta in respect

of said 0.53 decimal of land.

8. It was stated that the aforesaid case ultimately came to the Supreme Court

whereupon the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal filed by the State of

Madhya Pradesh. Accordingly, the decree passed by the first appellate

4 court in favour of Dr. Pannalal Gupta was affirmed. In view of the same, it

was alleged that the remaining portion of the land measuring 1.31 acres

could not have been entered into the revenue records as Government land

by the Patwari.

9. The aforesaid suit was contested by the respondent herein and upon

framing of the issues on the pleadings of the parties, the parties led their

evidence. On completion of the trial of the suit, the trial court dismissed

the suit filed by the plaintiff-appellant.

10.The appellant being aggrieved by the aforesaid judgment and order

preferred an appeal. The first appellate court after hearing the appeal

reversed the judgment and order passed by the trial court and passed a

decree in favour of the plaintiff-appellant. The respondent-State being

aggrieved by the aforesaid judgment and order filed a second appeal

bearing No. 372 of 2002 in the High Court of Madhya Pradesh which was

admitted on 08.10.2003. After admitting the appeal the High Court heard

the appeal and by a detailed judgment and decree passed on 19.10.2005

allowed the appeal and set aside the decision of the first appellate court.

11.The present appeal is filed by the appellant-plaintiff against the aforesaid

judgment and decree passed by the High Court.

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12.The learned counsel appearing for the appellant-plaintiff relied upon the

judgment and decree passed by the first appellate court in respect of 0.53

decimal of land which was allegedly a part of the disputed land initially. It

was submitted that the said land being a part of the suit land in the present

case and a decree having already been passed in favour of the appellant-

plaintiff and the said land having been transferred by Mahadev Prasad

Richharia, the father of the appellant-plaintiff only in favour of Chhedilal

Gupta, the predecessor-in-interest of Dr. Pannalal Gupta, the said decree

should have been relied upon and referred to in the present case since the

said decision had relevance and bearing while deciding the present case.

Counsel for the respondent however refuted the submission contradicting

inter alia that the judgment in respect of 0.53 decimal of land has no

relevance at all as the said judgment was passed in respect of another piece

of land and the parties were also different.

13.In the light of the aforesaid submissions of the learned counsel appearing

for the parties we have perused the records including the judgments passed

by all the three courts below. Our attention was drawn to the various

documents placed on record which were exhibited in the suit.

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14.In our considered opinion reliance placed on the judgment of the various

courts including the Supreme Court in respect of the land measuring 0.53

decimal which was allegedly sold by Mahadev Prasad Richharia, the father

of the appellant-plaintiff to Chhedilal Gupta is totally misplaced. The said

land was transferred way back in the year 1945. We are here concerned

with an area of land measuring 1.31 acres only. The said land is entered in

the revenue records in the name of the Government of Madhya Pradesh.

The revenue courts have given a finding against the appellant-plaintiff.

15.In the documents which are exhibited it is clearly mentioned that these are

not cultivable lands but originally they were `Khadans' (mines) and the

same land was declared as Nazool lands. Therefore, the revenue records

which are referred to in the present case clearly depict that the land has all

along been the Government land. The land was also said to be in a ruinous

state and, therefore, there was no possession of the appellant-plaintiff with

respect to the said land. No argument for claiming a right by way of

adverse possession was made before us which although was a plea taken in

the courts below. The appellant-plaintiff has also admitted in his evidence

that he has been residing outside the suit land. Therefore, it is clearly

established that the appellant-plaintiff did not even have the possession of

the suit land. Furthermore, there is no document to prove his title. He has

7 not been able to prove and establish as to how Mahadev Prasad Richharia,

his father came to own the said property which was a Government land.

The oldest khasra entry which is available on record is Exhibit P-11 which

pertains to the period of 1943-44. In the said khasra entry names of the

appellant-plaintiff are not recorded in any capacity whatsoever in the

relevant colums. Rather in the column meant for the name of `Kastkar'

(Cultivator) and his status, cross sign is shown whereas the nature of the

land is shown as `BA AR RASTA'. In khasra corresponding to year 1951-

52 (Exhibit P-12) the name of the appellant-plaintiff is not mentioned at

all in any capacity. The name of appellante-plaintiff was recorded in the

next year i.e. 1953-54 which is Exhibit P-4 but there also the name of the

appellant-plaintiff is recorded in column No. 7 whereas column No. 8 was

meant to show the name of the cultivator occupying them. The nature of

the land is not shown to be cultivable but is shown to be as `Khadan' i.e.

mines. The name of the appellant-plaintiff is not shown in any capacity in

the revenue records but clearly the name of Dr. Pannalal Gupta is shown to

be entered in respect of the land namely 0.53 acres. However, the name of

the appellant-plaintiff is not recorded at all in respect of the remaining land

i.e. 1.31 acres which is the subject matter of the present case. It is,

therefore, clearly established that the disputed property is in no way

8 connected with that of the subject matter of the proceedings measuring

0.53 acres of land. We also find from the record that the case pertaining to

0.53 acres of land was fought out between different parties. Therefore, the

decision rendered in the said case has no relevance to the facts of the

present case which is to be decided on the basis of the facts proved herein.

16.In view of the aforesaid observations, we find no merit in the present

appeal which is accordingly dismissed.

..........................................J. [Dr. Mukundakam Sharma]

.......................................J. [Dr. B.S. Chauhan]

New Delhi, July 7, 2009

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