Babu Lal Sharma vs State Of M.P

2. The appellant-plaintiff filed a suit seeking for a decree for declaration of his title in respect of the suit property comprising Khasra No. 1709, Rakba No. 1.84 situated at village Bagota, Tehsil Narsinghgarh Purva, District Chhattarpur, Madhya Pradesh. The case as pleaded in the plaint was that the aforesaid land earlier comprised of an area of 1.84 acres of land which was under the title and possession of Mahadev Prasad Richharia, the father of the appellant-plaintiff out of which some portion was under the physical use of Mahadev Prasad Richharia on which a house was constructed and some other portion was surrounded by `Bari'. It was also alleged that from the aforesaid Khasra No. 1709 consisting of 1.84 acres of area, 0.53 decimal of land was sold to one Chhedilal Gupta in the year 1945 and that Mahadev Prasad Richharia, the father of the appellant-plaintiff had executed a sale deed to that effect in favour of Chhedilal Gupta and had also handed over the possession to him on the date of sale of the land. It was further alleged that after the aforesaid sale of land the remaining portion of disputed land i.e. 1.31 acres of land remained under the title and possession of Mahadev Prasad Richharia, the father of the appellant- plaintiff. After the death of Mahadev Prasad Richharia, Babu Lal Sharma, the appellant-plaintiff became his successor and, therefore, owned and possessed the said disputed area of 1.31 acres. Subsequently, however, it came to his knowledge that the Patwari of village Bagota without any order of the competent authority entered the disputed land as Government land in the revenue records somewhere in the year 1953-54 although the said land was being shown in the name of Mahadev Prasad Richharia, the 2 father of the appellant-plaintiff in the revenue records for the year 1953-

4. An appeal against the aforesaid order was filed by the appellant-plaintiff in the court of Sub-Divisional Officer which was allowed by an order dated 26.06.1988 and the matter was remanded back to the court of Tehsildar, Chhattarpur for fresh consideration. The Tehsildar, Chhattarpur reconsidered the matter but, however, passed an order on 10.11.1995 against the appellant-plaintiff.

6. Consequently, the appellant-plaintiff filed a suit in the court of 2nd Civil Judge, Class-I, Chhattarpur, Madhya Pradesh bearing Civil Suit No. 96-A of 1998 seeking for a decree of declaration of title, ownership and possession. In the said suit it was alleged that 0.53 decimal of land was sold to one Chhedilal Gupta by Mahadev Prasad Richharia, the father of the appellant-plaintiff in the year 1945 from Khasra No. 1709 consisting of 1.84 acres of land. A notice under Section 248 of the Madhya Pradesh State Revenue Code was issued to Chhedilal Gupta when he started construction of a house on the aforesaid land. In the said case an order was passed imposing a fine of Rs. 1500/- along with an order of eviction from the land against Chhedilal Gupta.

9. The aforesaid suit was contested by the respondent herein and upon framing of the issues on the pleadings of the parties, the parties led their evidence. On completion of the trial of the suit, the trial court dismissed the suit filed by the plaintiff-appellant.

10.The appellant being aggrieved by the aforesaid judgment and order preferred an appeal. The first appellate court after hearing the appeal reversed the judgment and order passed by the trial court and passed a decree in favour of the plaintiff-appellant. The respondent-State being aggrieved by the aforesaid judgment and order filed a second appeal bearing No. 372 of 2002 in the High Court of Madhya Pradesh which was admitted on 08.10.2003. After admitting the appeal the High Court heard the appeal and by a detailed judgment and decree passed on 19.10.2005 allowed the appeal and set aside the decision of the first appellate court.

16.In view of the aforesaid observations, we find no merit in the present appeal which is accordingly dismissed.

..........................................J. [Dr. Mukundakam Sharma] .......................................J. [Dr. B.S. Chauhan] New Delhi, July 7, 2009 9