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Vijay Laxmi & Ors. v. Prabhu Devi & Ors.

Civil Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Civil Appeal Nos. 305-306 of 2017)Decided 10 Jan 2017
Civil Appeal Nos. 305-306 of 2017
Justice Kurian Joseph · Justice A.M. Khanwilkar

Background

The parties had been litigating since 1985 over competing claims to two pieces of property in Shimla: a smaller plot (6 biswas) in Sector 2, New Shimla, where the respondents were living in a small house, and a larger plot (17 biswas) in Sector 4. The dispute reached the Supreme Court after a High Court second-appeal decision in 2012, with both sides raising several legal questions.

Decision Breakdown

Rather than resolving the legal questions raised, the Supreme Court steered the parties toward an equitable, practical resolution: each side would keep one of the two properties outright. The respondents, who were already residing on the smaller plot, agreed to take that 6-biswa plot (with any structure on it) in exchange for giving up their claim to the larger 17-biswa plot, which would go to the appellants, even though the appellants' counsel acknowledged the 17-biswa plot was more valuable. The Court allowed the appeals on these terms: the appellants to get the 17-biswa plot and the respondents the 6-biswa plot (which they were directed to vacate and hand over within ten months, backed by a court-filed undertaking), with each side to have absolute title over its own property and no order as to costs.

Lesson Learnt

Courts can and often do encourage parties in long-running property disputes to accept a practical, mutually acceptable division of assets rather than fighting out every legal technicality, ending decades of litigation can sometimes be worth more to both sides than winning every point of law.

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

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