SADHURAM BANSAL Vs. PULIN BEHARI SARKAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal by special leave against the judgment of the Calcutta High Court discloses an unfortunate litigation which proves the well known legal maxim "delay defeats justice" and arises out of a Will executed by the testator which was hotly contested by various rival claimants resulting in an action which went on merrily and sprightly for almost three decades as a result of which in the back-waters of the longdrawn litigation most of the claimants died and their successors were interested not in the property but in the money which the property would bring, if sold.

(2.) As a result of internecine dispute between the heirs, an Official Receiver had to be appointed to look after the property and the final end of the drama seems to have begun when the Receiver, on the request of the parties, decided to sell the property with the permission of the Court by a private treaty lest the litigation might draw the last drop of the blood of the property rights of the heirs. Meanwhile, some more events followed which made the task of the Receiver both complex and complicated as the respondents put up their claim to possession of the property either in trespassers or as licensees from some of the heirs.

(3.) Thus, while the negotiations for the private treaty were going on a new upshot in the guise of the respondents' claim seems to nip in the bud the attempt of the owners to get the property back. During the course of the three decades, lot of changes took place in Howrah - the population rose by leaps and bounds, a number of buildings came up and perhaps it became next to impossible for the heirs to occupy the premises again. To add to this, came up a new litigation in the shape of proceedings under S. 145 of the Code of Criminal Procedure between the parties.