(1.) The petitioner has preferred the present writ petition to assail the order dtd. 19/1/2023 passed by learned Additional District Judge (II), Dehradun, whereby Civil Revision No. 12 of 2022, preferred by the petitioner to assail the order dtd. 29/11/2021 passed by learned Civil Judge (Junior Division), Rishikesh dismissing the petitioner's / defendant's Application under Order VII Rule 11 CPC, has been rejected.
(2.) The respondent had preferred the aforesaid Suit No. 48/2020, wherein the petitioner was the defendant, to seek a declaration that the Gift Deed, in respect of agricultural land, executed by the Aunt of the parties late Rajkumari Padma is void. The petitioner moved an Application under Order VII Rule 11 CPC on the premise that such a dispute could be agitated only before the Revenue Court, and the jurisdiction of the Civil Court is barred under Sec. 331 of the Uttar Pradesh Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act, 1950. The Courts below did not find merit in this submission of the petitioner, and dismissed the Application as well as the revision.
(3.) Learned Senior Counsel for the petitioner has placed reliance on the judgment of the Supreme Court in Kamla Prasad and others vs. Kishna Kant Pathak and others (2007) 4 SCC 213, and, in particular, Paragraphs 12 and 13 thereof, which read as follows:-