RAKESH KUMAR GUPTA Vs. MCD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE present appeal arises out of a judgment and decree dated 03. 07. 1999 passed by the trial court, dismissing the suit for permanent injunction filed by the appellant against the respondents, seeking to restrain them from dispossessing him or interfering in any manner with his physical possession over the land and structures in plots No. 13 and 14, measuring 600 sq. yards, part of Khasra No. 40/25 situated in the revenue estate of village Sameypur, Delhi.

(2.) THE case, as set out by the appellant in his plaint, was that he had come in possession of the aforesaid land in question in the year 1974, by way of adverse possession and since the year 1978, he had installed a petrol pump on the said land. It was averred that on 31. 03. 1997, the officials of respondents tried to forcibly dispossess the appellant from the land in question, thus compelling him to institute the suit for permanent injunction on 03. 04. 1997.

(3.) ON the very first day, i. e. , on 04. 04. 1997, while issuing summons to the respondents (defendants in the trial court), an exparte injunction order was passed, on the interim application for stay filed by the appellant, restraining the respondent/mcd from dispossessing the appellant from the land in question without due process of law. After the respondents entered appearance, a detailed written statement was filed by respondent No. 1 stating inter alia that the appellant/plaintiff had suppressed material facts from the court. It was averred that the appellant/plaintiff was a tenant of one Smt. Jagwati Devi, vide agreement dated 01. 04. 1978 and that the land in question was acquired under the Land Acquisition Act for the purpose of development of Sanjay Gandhi Transport Nagar. It was further stated that in the year 1987, the appellant was given an alternative site by the DDA at outer Ring Road, near Varun Niketan, Pitampura, Delhi and that he had taken possession of the said land and ever since has been running a petrol pump therefrom, under the name and style of "rakesh Filling Station".