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Amit Kumar v. Nihal Singh and Others

Civil Appeal · 2025 INSC 584Decided 23 Apr 2025
Civil Appeal (arising out of SLP(C) No. 8929 of 2024)
Mrs. Justice B.V. Nagarathna · Justice Sanjay Karol

Background

Amit Kumar (along with a co-owner) bought a property in Hathras, Uttar Pradesh in 1997 which was already rented to Nihal Singh for a small monthly rent to run a service station. After Nihal Singh stopped paying rent and secretly sub-let the property to a third party, Amit Kumar sued for eviction in the Small Causes Court, which decreed the suit in his favour in 2019. On revision, the Additional Sessions Judge sent the matter back to the trial court to first decide whether the property was "open land" (which would take it outside the Small Causes Court's jurisdiction under UP's rent control law), and the Allahabad High Court upheld that remand: a decision Amit Kumar challenged before the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the remand was unnecessary because the tenants themselves, in their own written statement, had admitted that the property had a built room, water tank, service station structure and an electricity connection, meaning it plainly was not "open land" and the jurisdictional question the Revisional Court sent back for trial did not genuinely arise at all. Since there was no real dispute on this point given the tenants' own admission, the Court set aside the High Court's order, restored the original eviction decree, and directed the tenants to hand over vacant possession by 31 October 2025 while continuing to pay rent and not damage the property in the meantime.

Lesson Learnt

A party's own admissions in their court pleadings can conclusively settle a factual dispute. Courts should not send a case back for a fresh trial on an issue that a party has already effectively conceded in their own written statement.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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