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Kedar Nath Kohli (Dead) by LRs. v. Sh. Baldev Singh

Civil Appeal · 2018 INSC 267Decided 27 Mar 2018
Civil Appeal No. 3333 of 2018
Justice R.K. Agrawal · Justice Mohan M. Shantanagoudar

Background

The appellant's father had filed a suit in 1975 claiming ownership and possession of a Delhi plot (No. 27), alleging the respondent had illegally trespassed and built on it. The respondent claimed he had bought the land in 1966 from a third party, Dharampal. The trial court and first appellate court dismissed the suit, and the Delhi High Court upheld that dismissal in second appeal, prompting this further appeal to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court found that the sale deed the respondent relied on (dated 15.9.1966) had been fabricated: when the original deed was summoned from the Sub-Registrar's sealed records, it showed a different purchaser name and did not even mention the disputed plot number, and site maps proved the land the respondent's seller actually owned was a separate, non-adjoining plot. By contrast, the appellant's chain of title through a 1948 sale deed to his father was unchallenged and consistent with the official site maps. The Court held the lower courts had all erred in ignoring these documentary inconsistencies.

Lesson Learnt

In property disputes, courts give decisive weight to the original registered documents held by the Sub-Registrar over a party's own produced copy, and apparent inconsistencies in site plans or document dates can expose fabricated title claims even decades later.

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

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