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Zarif Ahmad (D) Thr. Lrs. v. Mohd. Farooq

Civil Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Civil Appeal No. 666 of 2015)Decided 27 Jan 2015
Civil Appeal No. 666 of 2015
Justice Dipak Misra · Justice Prafulla C. Pant

Background

The respondent (plaintiff) sued his brother and nephew (the appellants/defendants) for a permanent injunction, claiming he owned and possessed a specific plot (No. 358) in Saharanpur, while the defendants' adjoining plot (No. 357) lay to its south and was where their own house stood. The defendants denied the plaintiff's title and possession, claiming a different original plot number and asserting their own long-standing possession and payment of house tax since 1979. The trial court decreed the suit in the plaintiff's favour on the basis of possession and house-tax records; the first appeal went against the plaintiff, but the High Court, in second appeal, restored the trial court's decree.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the High Court was entitled to re-examine all questions of fact and law in second appeal in these circumstances and had correctly done so. It found that the documentary evidence, particularly the plaintiff's long history of paying house tax on plot 358, outweighed a court-appointed Advocate Commissioner's report suggesting the defendants were in possession, since that report ran against the weight of the oral and documentary record. Noting that the defendants' own house stood on the separate, adjoining plot 357, and that the decree was limited only to plot 358, the Court found no illegality in the High Court's order and dismissed the appeal, with no order as to costs.

Lesson Learnt

In property disputes, long-standing documentary evidence of possession (such as municipal tax receipts) can outweigh a single surveyor's or commissioner's report, and an appellate court reviewing a second appeal involving boundary/possession disputes may re-examine the full factual record rather than being confined to narrow questions of law.

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

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