RAKESH KUMAR Vs. RAMBIR SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This revision petition is directed against the order in appeal, whereby petitioner's appeal was dismissed against the order passed by the trial judge on 12th December, 1988 granting prayer of the respondent (plaintiff in the suit) with regard to possession of the suit land, and further restraining the petitioners (defendants in the suit) from digging the land any further.

(2.) The land is situated in village Rewla Khanpur, Union Territory of Delhi. and is subject to the provisions of the Delhi Land Reforms Act, 1954 (for short the Act). The petitioners claim leasehold rights in the land, by virtue of a lease, alleged to have been executed on 17th August, 1983 by the Bhumidhar of the holding, namely, Ram Kanwar, from whom the plaintiff in the suit claims to have purchased the said land.

(3.) Apart from the question that the courts have found on the basis of the khasra girdawari that the plaintiff was in possession of the land and entitled to protection against dispossession during pendency of the suit petitioner's opposition to the grant of injunction has been rejected for the reason that they were claiming title on the basis of lease, which was void under the provisions of the Act, inasmuch as the said lease was admittedly for the purpose of a brick kiln. Both the courts below have taken the view that any transfer of a holding which is in contravention of the provisions of the Act, particularly Chapter III, cannot confer any rights on the transferee, by virtue of the provisions of section 42 of the Act. It has further been noted that the only purpose permissible for letting out a holding is that for agricultural purposes, and consequently the lease, in the present case, which on petitioner's own showing was for a brick kiln, would be void.