JANAKI Vs. STATE OF TAMIL NADU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) G.R.SWAMINATHAN. J, 1. The plaintiff in OS.No.710 of 2000 on the file of the District Munsif Court, Nagercoil is the appellant in this Second Appeal. The said suit was filed for permanent injunction restraining the respondents herein from dispossessing the plaintiff except by due process of law. The suit was decreed vide Judgment and Decree dtd. 20/8/2003. The I Appellate Court at the instance of the respondents herein reversed the same by the impugned Judgment and Decree dtd. 26/7/2004. Challenging the same, this Second Appeal came to be filed.

(2.) The Second Appeal was admitted on the following substantial questions of law.

(3.) The learned counsel appearing for the appellant would submit that the suit property was in the possession and enjoyment of the plaintiff for several years. No doubt, it is a poramboke land. The plaintiff has put up a residence and also planted trees. That the appellant was in possession of the suit property is amply proved by the fact that she was paying B-Memo charges. He drew my attention to the exhibits marked on the side of the plaintiff before the Court below. He placed reliance on the Judgment of the Honourable Supreme Court in the case of Rame Gowda (Dead) by Lrs. vs. V.M.Varadappa Naidu (Dead) by Lrs. and Another reported in 2004(3) LW 143 for the preposition that when a person in settled possession of property, even on the assumption that he had no right to remain on the property, he cannot be dispossessed except by due process of law. To evict the persons found in the encroachment of Government land, the authorities will have to follow the statutory proceedings set out under Tamil Nadu Land Encroachment Act, 1905. In the case on hand, the respondents could not prove that the due process of law was followed. That is why, the trial Court rightly allowed the suit. The I Appellate Court on the other hand summarily interfered with the findings rendered by the trial Court and dismissed the suit filed by the appellant herein. This Second Appeal is filed to set aside the impugned decree by allowing the appeal.