SARASWATI KUNJ Vs. L N GADODIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS order shall dispose of the application filed by the defendants No. 3 and 4 for rejection of the plaint on the ground that the suit as filed by the plaintiff is barred by limitation; that no cause of action has ever arisen or subsists in favour of the plaintiff; that the plaintiff has no locus standi to file the present suit and that the suit has been grossly under valued by the plaintiff for the purposes of court fees and jurisdiction.

(2.) THE factual matrix as it emerges from a reading of the plaint needs to be set out to appreciate the rival submissions of the parties. The plaintiff is a Society registered with the Registrar of Societies, Delhi vide registration no. S11442 of 1981. The defendant No. 1 is a company registered under the companies Act, 1913. The defendant No. 1 M/s. L. N. Gadodia and Sons Ltd. purchased a bungalow together with the land appurtenant thereto, measuring approx. 1. 9 acres, situate at 8, Alipur Road, Civil Lanes, Delhi vide registered sale deed dated 16. 10. 1948. After purchase of the said land, the defendant No. 1 with an intention to develop a Group Housing Scheme at the aforesaid land, made an application with the defendant No. 6, municipal Corporation of Delhi, for the approval of the lay out plan. The standing Committee of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi vide its resolution No. 593 dated 16. 11. 1972 approved and passed the lay out plan of the aforesaid Group Housing Scheme. Under the said scheme, 13 houses were provided, each comprising of one duplex type dwelling unit on the ground and first floor and one dwelling unit on the second floor. Thus, in the whole of the Group Housing Scheme, the Corporation approved 13 houses comprising 26 dwelling units. The defendant No. 1 constructed the aforesaid dwelling units and houses in the said Group Housing Scheme in a phased manner. Thus, the defendant No. 1 constructed and sold 7 houses bearing nos. 8/1, 8/2, 8/7, 8/8, 8/11, 8/12 and 8/13 after getting the building plans sanctioned from the defendant No. 6 in the first phase. The defendant No. 1 then constructed houses bearing Nos. 8/9 and 8/10 after getting the building plans approved from the defendant No. 6 in the second phase. Thereafter, in the last and final phase, the defendant No. 1 constructed and sold four houses bearing Nos. 8/3, 8/4, 8/5 and 8/6. At the time of and as a pre-condition for the sanction of building plans for the last and final phase, late Shri Ram Gopal Gadodia, father of Tej Pal Gadodia and a Director of the defendant No. 1 company, gave an undertaking to the defendant No. 6/mcd in the form of an affidavit dated 25th February, 1978 to the effect that "no portion of the land will be sold". Thereafter, the defendant No. 1, being the owner of house Nos. 8/9 and 8/10 and the then owners of various houses, formed and got registered the plaintiff society on 05. 01. 1981.

(3.) IN all the eleven, sale deeds of house Nos. 8/1, 8/2, 8/3, 8/4, 8/5, 8/6, 8/7,8/8,8/11,8/12 and 8/13, the defendant No. 1 agreed with each individual purchaser of the house to lease out the entire land under the Group Housing scheme to the Society or Association or Co-operative or Company to be formed in the name and style of "gadodia Group Housing Society" or any other name that may be acceptable to all the purchasers of the 26 dwelling units by perpetual lease deed. A draft of the then proposed perpetual lease deed was annexed to each sale deed and was signed in token of acceptance and approval by the purchaser of each house. Thus, the draft of the then proposed perpetual lease deed is part and parcel of the registered sale deed of every house.