GURUDWARA SAHIB Vs. GRAM PANCHAYAT VILLAGE SIRTHALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Leave granted.

(2.) The appellant herein is the original plaintiff which had filed the suit for decree of declaration to the effect that it had become owner of the suit property by adverse possession. Declaration was also sought to the effect that the Revenue record showing ownership of respondent No.1 herein i.e. Gram Panchayat (defendant in the suit) is liable to be corrected in the name of the appellant and the auction already held by the Gram Panchayat of the land in dispute is null and void. Consequential relief of permanent injunction restraining Gram Panchayat from dispossessing the appellant from the disputed land was also prayed for. This suit was partly decreed by the trial court granting relief of injunction. First Appeal against that part of the judgment whereby relief of declaration was denied was dismissed by the learned Additional District Judge and the Second Appeal preferred by the appellant has also been dismissed by the High Court of Punjab and Haryana vide judgment dated 22nd September 2011. Undeterred by successive failures, the appellant has knocked at the door of this Court with the plea that its suit be decreed in entirety.

(3.) The appellant claims ownership by adverse possession on the ground that it is in possession of the land in dispute for sufficiently long period which fact has been established and, therefore, his suit could not be dismissed. We, however, find that this relief of declaration has been denied on the ground that suit for such a prayer was not maintainable inasmuch as declaration to this effect on the basis of adverse possession cannot be sought and the plea of adverse possession is available only as a defence to the defendant.