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Prabhakara Adiga v. Gowri & Ors.

Civil Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Civil Appeal Nos. 3007-3008 of 2017)Decided 20 Feb 2017
Civil Appeal Nos. 3007-3008 of 2017
Justice Arun Mishra · Justice Amitava Roy

Background

The appellant had won a permanent injunction against a neighbour (the original defendant) restraining him from interfering with the appellant's land, after courts found the defendant had no title to the disputed property. After the defendant died, his heirs tried to forcibly dispossess the appellant in violation of that injunction, prompting the appellant to file execution proceedings against them. The Karnataka High Court held that an injunction decree is purely personal and dies with the original defendant, so it could not be enforced against his heirs: a ruling the appellant challenged before the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that while an injunction decree does not "run with the land" in the sense of binding a later purchaser of the property, Section 50 of the Code of Civil Procedure specifically allows execution of any decree, including an injunction, against the legal representatives of a deceased judgment-debtor. Surveying decades of High Court precedent, the Court found that where the right adjudicated (here, title to land) is heritable and partible, the benefit and burden of the decree both pass to the heirs, and the old Latin maxim that "a personal action dies with the person" has only limited application and does not cover this situation. It therefore set aside the High Court's order and upheld the executing court's direction that the heirs furnish an undertaking to obey the original injunction.

Lesson Learnt

Winning a property injunction against someone is not a hollow victory if that person later dies: under Section 50 CPC, their heirs inherit the obligation to obey the same injunction, so the original decree-holder does not need to file a fresh lawsuit all over again against the heirs.

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

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