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Murti Shri Durga Bhawani (Hetuwali) Trust & Anr. vs Sh. Diwan Chand (Dead) through LRs & Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2023 INSC 348Decided 11 Apr 2023
Civil Appeal No. 6801 of 2010
Abhay S. Oka · Rajesh Bindal

Background

The appellant, a registered charitable trust owning land in Khasra No. 4833 in Karnal, Haryana, sued in 1982 for possession, alleging the respondents had encroached on its land and built shops there. The respondents claimed they were not on Khasra No. 4833 at all, that they had possessed the disputed plot for over 34 years, and that they had become owners by adverse possession. The Trial Court decreed the suit in the Trust's favour, but the first appellate court reversed it, and the High Court upheld that reversal, holding that the exact identity/location of the disputed property remained unproven, even though it was undisputed that the Trust owned Khasra No. 4833 generally.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court found that the lower courts' conclusion that the property's identity was unproven was "perverse" in light of the respondents' own repeated admissions: their counsel had conceded in the trial court that the disputed site was part of Khasra No. 4833, and the respondents' predecessors had separately applied to revenue authorities for correction of records on the very basis that their shops stood on Khasra No. 4833. The Court also noted that the respondents' own earlier suit claiming adverse possession over the same land had already failed on merits, and that an earlier, more reliable Local Commissioner's report (with proper survey points) supported the Trust's case, unlike a later, vaguer report the lower courts had relied upon. Since ownership of Khasra No. 4833 was never in dispute and the respondents themselves had admitted their possession fell within it, the Supreme Court set aside the High Court's and first appellate court's judgments and restored the Trial Court's decree in the Trust's favour.

Lesson Learnt

A party's own clear admissions in prior proceedings or before revenue authorities can be decisive; courts will treat a factual finding as legally unsustainable ("perverse") if it ignores such admissions in favour of a weaker, less reliable piece of evidence.

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

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