Case: Hemantha Kumar Vs. R. Mahadevaiah &amp; Ors

2. The facts leading to the present appeal in a nutshell are as under:-2.1 That the appellant herein – original plaintiff instituted Original Suit No. 94 of 2006 in the Court of learned Civil Judge (Sr. Dn.) at Kunigal for specific performance of the agreement to sell/contract. The suit originally was filed against three defendants, however, one of the defendants – defendant No. 3 came to be deleted by the plaintiff. The suit came up for hearing before the learned Trial Court on 18.08.2007. The plaintiff and the original defendant Nos. 1 and 2 submitted an application under Order XXIII Rule 3 CPC, in which it was stated that the parties have settled the dispute and it was requested to pass a consent decree. The defendant Nos. 1 and 2 admitted execution of the agreement to sell dated 26.04.2005 in favour of the plaintiff and also admitted receipt of Rs. 30,000/- towards the part sale consideration. In the application under Order XXIII Rule 3 CPC, it was specifically stated that the defendant Nos. 1 and 2 have received the remaining sale consideration amount of Rs. 70,000/- from the plaintiff. Therefore, it was requested to pass the decree as prayed for in the suit as well as in terms of the compromise petition.2.2 The said consent compromise/compromise deed/compromise petition was signed by the Advocates for the respective parties. However, instead of decreeing the suit passing a consent decree though requested, the learned Trial Court referred the matter to Lok Adalat. Before the Lok Adalat, which was presided over by the very learned Civil Judge (Sr. Dn.), Kunigal, the Advocates for the plaintiff as well as the original defendant Nos. 1 and 2 remained present and prayed to pass a consent decree as per the application under Order XXIII Rule 3 CPC. Consequently, by judgment and decree dated 27.08.2007, the learned Trial Court passed the consent decree.2.3 That thereafter the original plaintiff filed the Execution Petition No. 88 of 2013 to execute the consent decree and for seeking execution of the sale deed in his favour. That thereafter, the defendant Nos. 1 and 2 filed the writ petition before the High Court being Writ Petition No. 35073 of 2015 challenging the consent decree passed by the Court of Lok Adalat on the ground that the consent decree was obtained by fraud.2.4 By the impugned judgment and order, the learned Single of the High Court has allowed the said writ petition and set aside the consent decree passed by the learned Trial Court passed in the Lok Adalat. This is mainly on the ground that looking to the compromise amongst the parties and the dates and events, prima facie it is evident that counsel for the plaintiff must have mislead the Trial Court in obtaining the decree on 18.8.2007 while referring the matter to Lok-Adalat r/w the compromise and drawing up of decree. By observing so, the High Court has set aside the consent decree passed by the learned Trial Court passed in the Lok Adalat and directed to restore the original suit to the file and the learned Trial Court has directed to re-commence the proceedings from the date of referring the matter to the Lok Adalat.2.5 Feeling aggrieved and dissatisfied with the impugned judgment and order passed by the High Court, the original plaintiff has preferred the present appeal.

Court's reasoning:
6. At the outset, it is required to be noted that as such the plaintiff and the defendant Nos. 1 and 2 and their Advocates filed the application before the learned Trial Court under Order XXIII Rule 3 CPC and requested to pass a consent decree submitting that the parties have settled the disputes. Filing of the application under Order XXIII Rule 3 CPC is not disputed by the defendant Nos. 1 and 2. That thereafter instead of passing the consent decree on the basis of the application filed under Order XXIII Rule 3 CPC as requested and prayed, for whatever reason, the learned Trial Court referred the matter to the Lok Adalat. Before the Lok Adalat, the learned Advocates appearing on behalf of the plaintiff and defendant Nos. 1 and 2 appeared and they requested to pass the consent decree and accordingly in the Lok Adalat, which was presided over by the very learned Judge, a consent decree came to be passed. Merely because the learned Trial Court, before whom the application was presented, referred the matter to the Lok Adalat, cannot be a ground to doubt the genuineness of the consent decree. Many a time, it happens that for whatever reason, instead of passing the decree/consent decree in the Court, the matter is referred to the Lok Adalat and directed to be placed before the Lok Adalat and therefore, a consent decree was passed as prayed by the parties. The aforesaid procedure adopted in the instant case cannot be a ground to doubt the genuineness of the consent decree. From the aforesaid, it cannot be said that there was a fraud committed and/or the counsel on behalf of the plaintiff to mislead the Court to refer the matter to the Lok Adalat. The matter was referred to the Lok Adalat by the Court and even the Lok Adalat was presided over by the very same learned Trial Court Judge. Therefore, as such, the High Court has committed a grave/serious error in doubting the consent decree.8. Therefore, the High Court has observed that the counsel for the plaintiff must have mislead the Trial Court in obtaining the decree on 18.8.2007 with reference to referring the matter to Lok-Adalat r/w the compromise and drawing up of decree. On what basis and/or the material, the High Court has observed so and that too prima facie, cannot be appreciated by us. Though, the High Court has commented about the counsel for the plaintiff, however, the High Court has not at all appreciated the fact that the application under Order XXIII Rule 3/consent application was presented and signed by the Advocates for the defendant Nos. 1 and 2 also the parties, who had also appeared before the learned Trial Court as well as before the Lok Adalat. There are no allegations at all against the counsel appearing on behalf of the defendant Nos. 1 and 2.9. It is also to be noted that neither are there any observations by the High Court that on submitting the application under Order XXIII Rule 3 CPC before the learned Trial Court and requesting for passing the consent decree, defendant Nos. 1 and 2 had objected to submitting the application under Order XXIII Rule 3/consent application in which it was requested to pass a consent decree. It is to be noted that in the application under Order XXIII Rule 3 CPC, it was further stated that defendant Nos. 1 and 2 have been paid the balance sum of Rs. 70,000/-. It is not the case on behalf of the defendant Nos. 1 and 2 that they have not received the balance sale consideration of Rs. 70,000/- as mentioned in the consent application / application under Order XXIII Rule 3 CPC.