MANGAT RAM Vs. RAM NIWAS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS appeal has been filed under Section 96 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 against the order dated 22/10/2008 passed by the Court of Additional District Judge, Delhi in Suit No. 619/06/05 filed by the appellants herein whereby their suit for declaration and permanent injunction was dismissed as time barred.

(2.) THE relevant facts for the purpose of present appeal may first be noticed. The appellants (hereinafter to be referred to as 'the plaintiffs') claiming themselves as joint owners of certain pieces of land in village Burari and village Badarpur Majra(hereinafter to be referred to as the 'suit property') filed a suit for declaration and injunction against the respondents herein(who shall hereinafter be referred to as 'the defendants'). It was claimed by the plaintiffs that the suit property belonged to Shri Chajju who was the uncle of plaintiffs no. 1 and 2(brother of their father late Shri Khacheru) and brother of the grandfather of plaintiffs no.3 to 7. Shri Chajju had inherited the suit property from his grand-father late Shri Ram Baksh. Shri Chajju was unmarried and he had died intestate. After the suit property was inherited by the plaintiffs from late Shri Chajju the same was mutated in their names in the revenue records on 19/12/2000. It was further claimed by the plaintiffs that in the month of August 2005 they had come to know that the two defendants, who are husband and wife, were trying to sell the suit property claiming themselves to be the owners thereof on the basis of a Will, allegedly executed in their favour by late Shri Chajju and when they enquired from the defendants about the Will and asked for a copy of the alleged Will the same was not provided to them. Then they inspected the revenue records and it transpired that the defendants had got the suit property mutated in their names in collusion with some revenue officials but no copy of the alleged Will of late Shri Chajju was found even in the revenue records. The plaintiffs then filed the suit in September, 2005 for a decree of declaration to the effect that they were the joint owners of the suit property and the Will, if any, of Shri Chajju was forged and fabricated document. Decree of permanent injunction restraining the defendants from transferring or alienating the suit property was also sought. The cause of action for filing the suit was alleged to have arisen in August, 2005 when the plaintiffs had come to know that the defendants had got the suit property mutated in their names based on the Will allegedly executed in their favour by late Shri Chajju.

(3.) FROM the pleadings of the parties the trial Court framed the following issues:-