By impugned judgment dated 24.01.2005, the High Court not only dismissed the appeal of the Plaintiff but proceeded to dismiss the entire suit including the finding of the Trial Court regarding ownership of the Appellant over the suit land.
16. Against the said judgment, the Appellant has filed this appeal by way of special leave petition before this Court.
17. Heard Mr. C.L. Sahu, learned Counsel for the Appellant and Mr. Harshvardhan Jha, learned Counsel for the State.
18. Having heard learned Counsel for the parties and on perusal of the record of the case, we are inclined to allow the appeal and while setting aside of the impugned order restore the suit to its file and remand the case to the Trial Court for deciding the suit afresh on merits.
19. The need to remand the case is called for because we find that the High Court while dismissing the Appellant's first appeal recorded a finding that since the Appellant (plaintiff) failed to prove his ownership over the suit land inasmuch as the Plaintiff did not examine his vendor to prove his sale deed, the Trial Court was not justified in decreeing the Appellant's suit and granting declaration of ownership in his favour in relation to the suit land. In other words, the High Court was of the view that it was obligatory upon the Appellant (plaintiff) to prove his title by examining his vendor and since it was not done, the decree passed by the Trial Court in Plaintiff's favour was not legally sustainable. This finding of the High Court, as mentioned above, resulted in dismissal of the appeal and the suit as well.
20. In our considered opinion, assuming that the High Court was right in its view, it should have given an opportunity to the Appellant to prove his title by allowing him to adduce proper evidence in support of his case and for that, the High Court should have remanded the case to the Trial Court for retrial of the suit. It was more so because we find that the Appellant suffered more damage to his case in prosecuting his own appeal. In the absence of any challenge laid by the Defendants to the part of the decree passed in Plaintiff's favour by the Trial Court, the appellate Court virtually passed the order in Respondents' (defendants) favour in Appellant's appeal.
21. In other words, the High Court having held that the Plaintiff was not able to prove his title to the land in the suit due to non-examination of his vendor, all that the High Court, in such circumstances, should have done was to remand the case to the Trial Court by affording an opportunity to the Appellant to prove his case (title to the land) and adduce proper evidence in addition to what he had already adduced. This, the High Court could do by taking recourse to powers under Order 41 Rule 23A of the Code of Civil Procedure.
22. Since we are inclined to remand the case by taking recourse to the powers available under Order 41 Rule 23A Code of Civil Procedure, it is not considered necessary to examine any other question arising in the case.
23. We are, therefore, of the considered opinion that instead of now remanding the case to the first Appellate Court, it would be just and proper to remand the case to the Trial Court to retry the suit on merits by affording an opportunity to the parties to adduce additional evidence in support of their case.
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
Civil Appeal No. 1412 of 2008
Decided On: 07.03.2017
Mohan Kumar Vs. State of Madhya Pradesh and Ors.
Hon'ble Judges/Coram:
R.K. Agrawal and Abhay Manohar Sapre, JJ.
Citation:(2017) 4 SCC92
Print Page