N. KARUPPANNA Vs. C. NACIMUTHU GOUNDER (DIED)

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Defendant in O.S. No.1 of 2016 on the file of the IV Additional District Court, Erode is on Appeal aggrieved by the Judgment and Decree made in the Suit declaring that the Settlement Deed, dtd. 29/8/2013 executed by the Plaintiff in the said Suit in favour of the Defendant/ Appellant as invalid having been obtained by undue influence and fraud.

(2.) The parties will be referred to as per their ranks for the purpose of convenience.

(3.) The Plaintiff is the father of the Defendant. He had purchased the Suit properties under Sale Deeds during the years 1971 & 1979. He had one son and 4 daughters. The son namely the Defendant had been in Government service and retired in the year 2012. The wife of the Plaintiff-Valliammal died on 14/7/2013. Thereafter, the Plaintiff executed a Settlement Deed on 29/8/2013 in favour of the Defendant, who is his only son. Soon thereafter, he filed a Suit in February, 2013 as an indigent person, seeking a declaration of Settlement Deed is invalid on the ground that fraud, undue influence and coercion. The Plaintiff would plead that he was taken by the Defendant and his friends in a Car and made to affix his Thumb Impression in certain Stamp Papers. He has also claimed that the Defendant and his friends threatened to throw him in River Cauvery, if he does not affix his left hand Thumb Impression in the document. It is also claimed that on 17/10/2013 the Defendant and his friends came to the house and has attempted to dispossess him. He lodged a Complaint with the Commissioner of Police, Land Grabbing Cell, Erode, the District Collector, Erode regarding the highhanded actions of the Defendant. He would claim that the Police did not take action because of the influence of the Defendant. On the above contentions, the Plaintiff sought for the declaration as stated above.