Case: Chandro Devi &amp; Etc Vs. Union Of India

CIVIL APPEAL NO. 11360 OF 2017 (Arising out of SLP (C) NO. 33396 OF 2011)1. Leave granted.2. This appeal is directed against the judgment dated 25th November, 2011 passed in Review Petition No.694 of 2011, whereby the Division Bench of the Delhi High Court dismissed the review petition and refused to recall the judgment dated 29th July, 2010 passed in Letters Patent Appeal No.513 of 2010, which was dismissed, upholding the judgment of the learned Single Judge, dated 12th July, 2010.3. At the outset, it would be pertinent to mention that a number of writ petitions were filed by the petitioners who were eitherwho had suffered injuries during war or active service or had retired after rendering full service. Some of the writ petitioners like Chandro Devi (appellant herein) were family members of the deceased army personnel, who had died in war etc..4. The original writ petitioners were rehabilitated by allocating them shops in those colonies where defence personnel reside. These colonies were being managed by the Station Commander. In Delhi such colonies are located at S.P. Marg, Delhi Cantt., Arjun Vihar, Dhaula Kuan, Shankar Vihar etc. It is not disputed that as per the lease deed(s) entered between the writ petitioners and the Station Commander, the leases were granted to the petitioners only for a period of 11 months, but there was a clause in the lease deed that it could be renewed. On 13th April, 2007 a policy was introduced, which provided that the lease should not be extended beyond 5 years under any circumstances. However, the persons whose leases were cancelled after 5 years could apply for grant of fresh lease after 3 years. The leases of the leaseholders were cancelled since they had held the shops on lease for more than 5 years.5. The petitioners challengedof their leases and claimed that they were entitled to renewal thereof. The learned Single Judge dismissed the writ petitions. The letter patent appeals filed by the lessees including the appellant herein were dismissed by the Division Bench. Some of the original writ petitioners filed special leave petitions before this Court, which were dismissed. However, the petitioners, who had approached this Court, were granted time to vacate the premises up to 30th November, 2011 on their filing usual undertaking in this regard. Some of the writ petitioners like Chandro Devi, the present appellant, did not approach this Court. After the decision by this Court, one set of review petition(s) was filed by the persons, who had approached this Court and another review petition was filed by Chandro Devi, who had not approached this Court. The review petitions were time barred but the delay was condoned. These review petitions were dismissed leading to the filing of a number of special leave petitions and one contempt petition.6. On 17th July, 2017 we had dismissed the Special Leave Petition (Civil) Nos.4078 of 2011 and 3982 of 2012. We had, however, ordered that we would consider the case of Chandro Devi and Surendra Kumar. As far as the case of Surendra Kumar is concerned, i.e. Contempt Petitionof 2014, the same was disposed of separately vide order dated 4th September, 2017. This leaves only the case of Chandro Devi. She had admittedly not approached this Court in the earlier round of litigation.

Reasoning:
There can be no dispute with the proposition that if there is fraud, which leads to passing of a judgment, then fraud vitiates all actions taken consequent to such fraud and this would mean that the judgment would be set aside. However, before setting aside the judgment, we must come to the conclusion that the action was fraudulent. Every wrong action is not a fraudulent action. Assuming that the letter dated 4th September, 2008 was only a draft letter, it does not mean that this letter was fraudulently introduced by the Union of India. In the letter placed before the court the word `DGL find mention. It may be true that the counsel for the Union of India did not inform the court that the words `DGL stood for `Draft Government Letter, but, it is equally true that even the counsel for the appellant did not make any efforts to find out what the words `DGL stood for. Even the Court did not look into this aspect. Fraud has to be pleaded and proved. Mere allegations of fraud made for the first time in this Court are not sufficient. We are not, in any manner, approving the action of the Union of India in putting forth this letter before the Court. However, it cannot be said that this improper act is a fraudulent action on the part of the Union of India. The learned Single Judge as well as the Division Bench did place reliance on this letter and since this letter is now said to be a draft government letter only, we may ignore it for the purposes of deciding this case. Even if we were to ignore this letter, the appellant cannotour view, this contention is totally misplaced. No doubt, vide letter dated 25th February, 2005 the Ministry of Defence proposed to take over the management of all shopping complexes and to frame guidelines in this regard, but as per Para 3 of this letter, amendments to clause 2(v) would be applicable from 1st April 2005 or from the date when the guidelines/rules, as envisaged in clause 2(vi) are framed, whichever is later. The Ministry of Defence issued Defence Shopping Complexes (Maintenance and Administration) Rules in the year 2006. It is the case of the appellant herself that these Rules are not applicable to shops constructed on defence lands by public funds. Therefore, as per the appellant, these rules are not applicable to the present case. Vide letter dated 4th September, 2008 the guidelines were circulated. The appellant contends that this was only a draft government letter and, therefore, these guidelines are also not applicable to them. If that be so, it clearly means that no guidelines have been framed with regard to the shops on defence lands created out of government funds. If no fresh guidelines have been framed then amended clause 2(v) would not come into play. Then SOP of 2001 would be applicable and that can be amended by the Station Commander himself. The SOP of 2007 provides that no shops will be leased out for a period of more than 5 years.It is true that in Para 48 of the judgment the learned Single Judge also referred to the Defence Shopping Complexes (Maintenance and Administration) Rules, 2006 and the guidelines issued in 2008, but the Court also found that the change in the SOP in limiting the maximum period of lease to 5 years was not arbitrary or irrational.This judgment of the learned Single Judge was upheld by the Division Bench and also by this Court though in a petition filed by some other petitioner. On going through the SOPs of 2001 and 2007, we do not find that the appellant had any vested right to continue in possession even after 5 years. Even, as per the SOP of 2001, the Station Commander was to renew lease from year to year and there was no inherent right to continue as a lessee in perpetuity. These leases have been determined in aL APPEAL NO. 11361 OF 2017 (Arising out of SLP (C) NO. 33397 OFIn addition to the reasons given hereinabove, this appeal is also liable to be dismissed and is dismissed, because of the following two additionalThat the appellants in this appeal had earlier filed review petition which was dismissed and, thereafter, they filed second Review Petition No. 717 of 2011, which was rightly dismissed by the Delhi High Court as not maintainable being a second review petition;(ii) That the appellants had approached this Court and their special leave petition was dismissed by this Court on 04.02.2011. However, the appellants were granted time till 30th November, 2011 to vacate the premises on their furnishing undertaking. They availed of the benefit granted to them and now they cannot be permitted to raise fresh grounds in this appeal.