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Balkrishna Dattatraya Galande v. Balkrishna Rambharose Gupta & Anr.

Civil Appeal · 2019 INSC 153Decided 6 Feb 2019
Civil Appeal No. 1509 of 2019
Justice R. Banumathi · Justice R. Subhash Reddy

Background

The respondent-plaintiff, claiming to be a tenant in premises used for an eating house, pan shop and fabrication work, sued the landlord-appellant for a permanent injunction after the landlord allegedly obstructed him from carrying out repairs in 2004. The landlord contended that the tenancy had already ended in 1991, when the plaintiff vacated the premises under a settlement reached in an earlier suit. The trial court dismissed the plaintiff's suit, finding he had not proved continued possession or payment of rent since 1991, but the First Appellate Court reversed this and granted the injunction, a decision the Bombay High Court upheld.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that a plaintiff seeking a permanent injunction under Section 38 of the Specific Relief Act must prove actual, physical possession of the property as of the date of filing the suit: relief cannot rest on inference or presumption. It found the plaintiff had not paid rent for over fifteen years, lacked the licences and electrical connection needed to run the businesses he claimed to operate there, and that a court commissioner's report showed the premises were unfit for such business. The First Appellate Court and High Court had wrongly presumed continued possession merely from a withdrawal document in an earlier, unrelated suit, without the plaintiff discharging his burden of proof. The Supreme Court therefore set aside the High Court's judgment, allowed the appeal, and dismissed the plaintiff's suit.

Lesson Learnt

To get a court injunction protecting your possession of a property, you must actually prove you were in physical possession on the date you filed the case: courts will not infer possession in your favour just because the other side's earlier, separate case was withdrawn.

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

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