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Naganna (Dead) By LRs / Smt Devamma v. Siddaramegowda (Since Deceased) By LRs

Civil Appeal · 2025 INSC 369Decided 19 Mar 2025
Civil Appeal No. 3688/2024
Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia · Justice Prasanna B. Varale

Background

The plaintiff claimed ownership of a vacant site and house based on an alleged oral family partition between his father and uncle decades earlier, and a later 1995 family settlement document. He sued to cancel a 1993 sale deed under which the defendant had purchased the same property from the plaintiff's cousin, and to recover possession. The trial court and first appellate court both ruled in the plaintiff's favour, but the Karnataka High Court, hearing a second appeal, reversed them, holding the plaintiff had produced only revenue record extracts (not actual title deeds) and had failed to prove either the oral partition or clear ownership.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court agreed with the High Court's assessment of the evidence. It noted the documents relied on by the plaintiff, assessment/demand register extracts, did not establish ownership, and that a related suit the same plaintiff had filed against the purchaser of an adjoining half of the same property had also been dismissed on identical grounds for lack of proof of title. The Court reiterated the settled principle that a plaintiff must succeed on the strength of his own case and cannot rely on the weakness of the defendant's case, and it found the plaintiff had not discharged that burden. The appeal was dismissed.

Lesson Learnt

Revenue records such as khata or assessment extracts are not proof of ownership of land; anyone claiming title to property must produce genuine title documents, and cannot rely on possession entries in government records or on gaps in the opposing party's case.

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

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