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Rajat Kumar and Ors. v. S D Adarsh Jain Kanya Maha Vidyalaya Sadhaura and Anr.

Civil Appeal · 2026 INSC 648Decided 19 Jun 2026
C.A. No.-019552-019553 - 2017
Justice S.V.N. Bhatti · Justice Atul S. Chandurkar

Background

The legal heirs of an original plaintiff had won two civil suits against a school (the defendants) for removing an illegally built wall and a lintel encroaching on the plaintiff's property; the trial court and first appellate court both ruled in the plaintiff's favour. On second appeal, the Punjab and Haryana High Court instead directed the defendants to simply pay compensation and treat the wall as "common": a decision the Supreme Court had already once set aside and sent back for fresh consideration on the merits. On remand, the High Court repeated essentially the same approach, again ordering monetary compensation instead of deciding the appeal on its merits.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the High Court's approach was legally unsustainable. Since the original decrees favouring the plaintiff had been set aside, there was no decree left for the Executing Court to value or enforce, and the High Court's compensation direction had no basis in the Code of Civil Procedure's rules on execution. The Court also found the High Court had proceeded on a factually incorrect premise (that the trial court had found the wall to be "common," when it had not) and had granted relief, monetary compensation, that neither party had actually sought, causing a miscarriage of justice. The Supreme Court set aside the High Court's judgment and sent the Second Appeals back once more, directing the High Court to decide them strictly on their merits under Section 100 of the Code of Civil Procedure, and asked for this to be done expeditiously given the appeals were already from 2008.

Lesson Learnt

A court hearing a second appeal cannot invent a form of relief (like compensation) that no party asked for, nor can it modify a decree without actually deciding the substantial questions of law involved: appellate courts must decide cases on the legal merits actually argued, not improvise alternative outcomes.

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

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