SUBRAMANIA CHETTY Vs. GANESAN PILLAI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners were convicted by the first class Bench Court of Salem in S. T. R. No. 189 of 1948 under Sections 448 and 426, Penal Code, and sentenced to pay fines. There was no appeal or revision against these sentences and therefore they became final and hence the merits are now beyond controversy. More than a month after the conviction, the respondent, who was the complainant, applied to the Bench Court for delivery of possession of the house, the trespass in which was the subject matter of the criminal case on the ground that the respondent had been wrongfully dispossessed by the petitioner. For the reason that the application was made more than one month after the disposal of the criminal case, the trial Court dismissed the application whereupon the respondent, by an original application as it were, applied to the Sessions Court for an order directing the delivery of possession of the house to him. The learned Sessions Judge after considering certain decisions quoted before him came to the conclusion that the respondent had been wrongfully dispossessed by the petitioners and therefore directed restoration of the property to-the respondent. Aggrieved by the order of the learned Judge, the petitioners have come up in revision to this Court and contest the legality of the learned Sessions Judge's order.

(2.) Mr. T. Krishna Rao for the petitioners, contended that Section 522, Criminal P. C. is inapplicable because there had been no use of criminal force or show of criminal force in the alleged dispossession of the respondent and therefore the section could not be invoked by the respondent even if he had applied in time, before the learned Sessions Judge. It is unnecessary in the view which we are going to take as, regards the sustain ability of the application before the Sessions Judge, to give a definite opinion on this aspect of the case at all.

(3.) But the real question is whether it is open to the respondent to initiate new proceedings as it were by application to the Sessions Judge, under Sub-clause (3) of Section 522 of the Code and ask for a relief which the trial Court could not have given after a month of the disposal of the criminal case. Sub-section (3) runs as follows :