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Trilok Singh Chauhan v. Ram Lal (Dead) Thr. LRs.

Civil Appeal · 2017 INSC 1213Decided 11 Dec 2017
Civil Appeal No. 20833 of 2017
Justice A.K. Sikri · Justice Ashok Bhushan

Background

The appellant-landlord let out a shop in Rishikesh to the respondent, a cloth merchant, and sued for eviction and recovery of rent after the tenant allegedly stopped paying the agreed Rs. 1,500/month and instead claimed the rent was only Rs. 250/month. The Trial Court believed the landlord and decreed eviction with rent arrears and damages, but the Allahabad High Court (seated at Uttarakhand) reversed this in revision, holding the rent was only Rs. 250/month and criticising the landlord's motives. The landlord appealed to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the High Court, exercising limited revisional jurisdiction under Section 25 of the Provincial Small Cause Courts Act, 1887, had no power to overturn a pure finding of fact unless it was perverse, based on no evidence, or ignored relevant material, and here the High Court had not even engaged with the Trial Court's reasoning (an adverse inference against the tenant for not producing his rent diary, and municipal valuation records supporting Rs. 1,500/month). The Court also rejected the tenant's argument that the landlord had "waived" his right to evict by not following up strictly, since the eviction notice and subsequent pleadings clearly showed continuing intent to evict. The appeal was allowed, the High Court's judgment set aside, and the Trial Court's eviction decree restored.

Lesson Learnt

A revisional court (and by extension any supervisory court) cannot casually re-decide factual findings of a trial court merely because it might have reached a different conclusion: it can only interfere on narrow, specific grounds like perversity or complete absence of evidence; ordinary litigants should know that revision is not a second appeal on facts.

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

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