K KHAJA MOHIDEEN Vs. K MUHAIDEEN BATCH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this second appeal a question of respondent judicata is raised in the following circumstances : There were two cross-suits between the same parties in the District Munsif Court, Tirunelveli. One was for injunction. The other was for possession. The injunction suit O. S. No. 629 of 1972 was filed by one Khaja Mohideen against three sons of a tailor called Khader Batcha. The suit for possession O. S. No. 413 of 1973, was filed, as a counterblast, by the sons of Khader Batcha against Khaja Mohideen. The subject matter of both the suits was a tailoring business run in the name of 'Star Tailoring Mart'. Khaja Mohideen claimed that this business exclusively belonged to him. Khader Batcha's son, on the contrary, said that Khaja Mohideen was only an erstwhile manager of the business. They claimed that they were the owners of the business by right of inheritance from their father. In his suit Khaja Mohideen asked that Khader Batcha's sons be restrained by a permanent injunction from interfering with his running of the Tailoring Mart. In the other suit, Khader Batcha's sons asked for a decree directing possession of the Tailoring Mart to them.

(2.) Both the suits were tried together by the learned District Munsif. Documents were marked in common oral evidence also was called in common. At the end of the joint trial, the District Munsif decreed the injunction suit of Khaja Mohideen and dismissed the other cross suit for possession.

(3.) The sons of Khader Batcha appealed. They preferred, though, only one appeal, A. S. 413 of 1974, which was an appeal against the decree in the injunction suit. They did not appeal against the decree dismissing their own suit for possession.