Case: Meghmala  Vs. G.Narasimha Reddy

(A) V. Ram Chandra Reddy and his brother (vendors) had a huge chunk of land and a part of it could have been the subject matter of the provisions of Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act, 1976 (hereinafter called the Act 1976). The said vendors entered into an agreement to sell dated 23.01.1976 for selling a part of the land (hereinafter called `suit land) to a cooperative society namely, Gruha Lakshmi Cooperative Housing Society Ltd. (hereinafter called,. The vendors, V. Ram Chandra Reddy and his brother executed a sale deed in favour of A. Sambashiva Rao (hereinafter called the appellant/applicant) which was registered on 21.05.1980 vide document No. 4758/80 and the appellants were put in possession of the suit land.(B) The appellant/applicant- vendee filed LGC No. 76/1996 against the respondents under the provisions of the Act, 1982 alleging that he had been working in Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation and was mostly out of station, and the respondents had forcibly grabbed his land and raised construction thereon. Thus, he sought the relief of their dispossession and action against them under the provisions of the Act, 1982.(C) After complying with the requirements of the statutory provisions i.e. taking the sanction etc., the respondents were issued a show cause notice. The respondents filed their reply submitting that in respect of the suit land, there was an agreement to sell, dated 23.01.1976, in favour of the society and once such an agreement to sell had been executed, vendors had no right to transfer the land in favour of the appellant/applicant. The society had allotted the suit land in their favour, therefore, the application was liable to be rejected.(D) The Special Court after appreciating the evidence, vide Judgment and order dated 4.11.1997 came to the conclusion that the appellant/applicant was the owner of the suit land and that the respondents had no right, title or claim over the suit land. They had forcibly occupied the land and they were land grabbers, thus, they were liable to be evicted and orders for that purpose were passed.(E) Being aggrieved by the order of the Special Court dated 4.11.1997, the respondents preferred writ petition No. 33572/1997 before the High Court of Andhra Pradesh, which was dismissed vide Judgment and Order dated 3.07.2001.(F) Being aggrieved by the order of the High Court, the respondents preferred Special Leave Petition (c) No. 18218/2001 before this Court, which was dismissed as withdrawn vide order dated 2.11.2001 giving liberty to the respondents to file review petition before the High Court. (G) The respondents filed review petition No. 31506/2002 before the High Court. However, the said review petition was dismissed by the High Court vide order dated 16.12.2002.(H) In the intervening period, when the review petition was pending before the High Court, the appellant/applicant filed execution proceedings by moving IA No. 518/2002. The Respondents also moved an application to summon the record of the Revenue Divisional Officer, Secundrabad, pertaining to the survey of the suit land along with an application for the stay of Execution proceedings. The Special Court vide order dated 7.11.2002 allowed the Execution Application filed by the appellant/applicant but dismissed the application filed by respondents directing the Revenue Divisional Officer to implement the order dated 4.11.1997.(I) The respondents being aggrieved by the common order dated 7.11.2002, filed writ petition nos. 22953 and 23105 of 2002, which were, dismissed by the High Court vide order dated 17.12.2002.(J) In pursuance of the order in Execution Proceedings dated 7.11.2002, the appellants were put into possession of the suit land on 16.12.2002.(K) The respondents being aggrieved by the order of the High Court dated 17.12.2002, preferred review petitions before the High Court, which were dismissed by the Court vide order dated 17.11.2003.(L) The respondents filed Review Application no. 397/2005 in LGC No. 76 after an inordinate delay, seeking review of the order dated 4.11.1997. The respondents subsequently filed an application in LGCSR No. 357/2005 before the Special Court for fresh declaration that they were the owners and that the appellants, who had succeeded throughout the litigation, were the land grabbers. The respondents in the said application impleaded persons other than the appellant/applicant also, i.e. the vendors of the appellant/applicant and govt. officials etc., who are the other appellants in these cases. The Special Court dismissed the said applications vide orders dated 6.7.2006 and 11.7.2006.(M) The respondents, being aggrieved by both the orders, filed Writ Petition Nos. 19962 and 19963 of 2006, which have been allowed by the High Court vide impugned Judgment and order dated 26.04.2007, directing the Special Court to decide both the applications afresh on merit, as in the opinion of the High Court, the applications required certain inquiry on factual matters and the claim of the respondents could not have been rejected merely on the determination and attaining finality of orders in earlier proceedings. Hence, these appeals.

Court's reasoning:
18. In view of the above, we are of the considered opinion that filing of such a review application by the respondents at a belated stage amounts to abuse of process of the Court and such an application is not maintainable. Thus, the High Court ought not to have entertained the writ petition against the order of dismissal of the review application by the Special Court and the order of the High Court to that extent is liable to be set aside.From the above, it is evident that even in judicial proceedings, once a fraud is proved, all advantages gained by playing fraud can be taken away. In such an eventuality the questions ofof the statutory remedies or statutory bars like doctrine of res judicata are not attracted. Suppression of any material fact/document amounts to a fraud on the court. Every court has an inherent power to recall its own order obtained by fraud as the order so obtained is non est.29. The instant case required to be examined in the light of the aforesaid settled legalcase of the respondents has been that transfer by the vendor in favour of the appellant was not genuine. Material information had been suppressed from the Special Court. More so, there was no proper identification of the suit land in the earlier litigation. The reports submitted in this regard were not correct.30. Respondents have never been able to show as under what circumstances they are interested in the suit land because before the Special Court in the first round they failed to show any document that land had ever been transferred by the tenure holders/owners in favour of the Society or the Society had made any allotment in their favour or they were member of the said Society or they obtained any sanction from statutory authority to raise theM.V. Durga Prasad, Ld. Counsel appearing for the said respondents was repeatedly asked by us to show any document on record linking the said respondents with the suit land. Though, he argued for a long time, raised large number of issues but could not point out a single document which may reflect that respondents could have any claim on the suit land. Therefore, we are of the considered opinion that the application at their behest was not maintainable.31. The issue ofsuppression of material fact and identification of land had been in issue in earlier review petitions before the Special Court and in the Writ Petitions before the High Court. In this regard, the Special Court in execution proceedings was fully satisfied regarding the identity of land on the basis of revenue record and came to the conclusion that there was noor fraud on the part of the appellant/applicant. The order of the Special Court dated 11th July, 2006 made it clear that all these issues had been agitated in earlier proceedings.In another case decided by the Special Court vide order dated 6th July, 2006 the Court had taken note of the pleadings in respect of identification of land andin the earlier proceedings and the observations made by the Writ Court in its order dated 17th December, 2002 that the said respondents were interested in protracting the litigation and obstructing the implementation of the order of the Special Court dated 4.11.1997. The said order had been passed in Application No. 51 of 2002 where one of the main grounds had been that the appellant/applicant had played fraud in obtaining the said order as is taken note of in paragraph 13 of the said order by the Special Court. The Special Court also took note of earlier direction to the Revenue Divisional Officer to identify the land and possession of the same was delivered to the decree holder. The said order was under challenge before the High Court in Writ Petition Nos. 22953/2002 and 23105/2002 wherein pleading of the alleged fraud andof suit land were taken. The Special Court came to the conclusion that there was no suppression of any fact by the revenue authorities or the court was misled at the time of obtaining such orders.33. There is a registered sale deed dated 21.5.1980 in favour of the appellant/applicant. Nobody has ever filed any application before the competent court to declare said sale deed as null and void. Respondents have no right or interest in the suit property. The Society claimed to have an agreement to sell in its favour which did not confer any title in favour of the Society. A finding of fact had been recorded in earlier proceedings that the appellant/applicant was in actual physical possession of the land and he was illegally/forcibly dispossessed by the respondents.The forcible eviction of the appellant/applicant by the respondents was unwarranted and unlawful. Proceedings had been initiated under the Act, 1982. It is a special Act to prevent illegal activities of land grabbing. The Legislature, in its wisdom, constituted a Special Court presided over by a person who is or eligible to be the Judge of the High Court, and consisting of the Members who are or eligible to become District Judge and District Collector. Therefore, persons having enough experience and who have acquired a higher status have been given responsibility to adjudicate upon the disputes under the Act 1982. That Special Court has been conferred with the powers of Civil or Criminalper the provisions of Section 10 of the Act 1982, the burden of proof is on the accused to prove that he is not guilty. Thus, it is not like any other criminal case where accused is presumed to be innocent unless the guilt is proved. The presumption of innocence is a human right, however, subject to the statutory exceptions, the said principle forms the basis of Criminal Jurisprudence. For this purpose, the nature of offence, its seriousness and gravity thereof has to be taken into consideration. Statutes like Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881; Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988; and Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, 1987, provide for presumption of guilt if the circumstances provided in those Statutes are found to be fulfilled and shift the burden of proof of innocence on the accused. Thus, the Legislature has adopted a deviating course from ordinary criminal law shifting the burden on the accused to prove that he was not guilty. The High Court while deciding these cases has not considered the issue of the locus standi of the respondents to maintain the application for eviction of the appellant/applicant. Chagrined and frustrated litigants should not be permitted to give vent to their frustrations by cheaply invoking the jurisdiction of the court. The court proceedings ought not to be permitted to degenerate into a weapon of harassment and persecution.