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Bharat Bhushan Gupta vs. Pratap Narain Verma and Another

Civil Appeal · 2022 INSC 649Decided 16 Jun 2022
Civil Appeal No. 4577 of 2022
Dinesh Maheshwari · Vikram Nath

Background

The plaintiff-appellant sued his brother and another person, alleging they were mere gratuitous licensees occupying rooms on his plot in Uttam Nagar, New Delhi, and sought a mandatory injunction directing them to vacate along with damages for wrongful occupation. He valued the injunction reliefs nominally at Rs. 250 each (as is permitted under Section 7(iv)(d) of the Court Fees Act, which lets a plaintiff value such reliefs himself) and the damages claim at Rs. 1 lakh, paying court fees accordingly. During cross-examination, the plaintiff estimated the market value of the property at around Rs. 1.8 crores, and the defendant used this admission to argue the trial court (with pecuniary jurisdiction capped at Rs. 3 lakh) had no jurisdiction; the trial court rejected this argument, but the Delhi High Court reversed and ordered the plaint returned for filing in a higher court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the High Court's approach was legally wrong: for suits under Section 7(iv)(d) of the Court Fees Act (which covers injunction suits), it is the nature of the relief claimed, not the market value of the underlying property, that determines how the suit must be valued, and the plaintiff has discretion in fixing that valuation as long as it isn't whimsical. A suit for mandatory injunction to evict a licensee (as opposed to a title suit for possession) is a well-recognised category of claim, and the High Court had misapplied its own cited precedent (Mulk Raj Khullar) by treating the plaintiff's incidental admission about market value as proof of "arbitrary" valuation. The Court therefore set aside the High Court's order and restored the trial court's decision rejecting the defendant's jurisdictional objection, while expressly leaving all merits of the underlying dispute open for the pending first appeal against the trial court's eventual decree.

Lesson Learnt

In a suit for injunction against a licensee to vacate property, the case does not have to be valued at the property's market value. The law lets the plaintiff value the specific relief sought (subject to it not being whimsical), so a defendant cannot defeat such a suit on a technical jurisdiction argument just because the property itself is valuable.

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

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