BUDHA LAL Vs. RAM CHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This first appeal is directed against the judgment and order dated 17/05/1982 passed by the VI Addl. District Judge, Agra in Civil Appeal No. 165 of 1981 whereby the learned Judge has set aside the judgment and decree dated 11/03/1981 rendered by the Munsif, Fatehabad, Agra in Original Suit No. 420 of 1977 and remanded the case to the trial Court for deciding it afresh.

(2.) Ram Chand, the plaintiff-respondent, filed a civil suit for partition of the property mentioned in the Schedule 'A' to the plaint. The defendant-appellant filed his written statement resisting the claim of the plaintiff-respondent. The issues were framed and the plaintiff as well as defendant entered the witness-box. During the course of their statements the plaintiff and defendant made a reference with regard to certain settlement/ compromise which had already been arrived at between them. The parties also made a reference to the terms and conditions of the aforesaid settlement/compromise. The trial Court decided all the issues except issue No. 5 and gave findings thereon which are not relevant here. While considering the issue No. 5, which related to the grant of relief to the plaintiff, the trial Court concluded that the suit had to be decreed in terms of the stipulations of the alleged pre-existing settlement/compromise referred to by the parties in their statements. The trial Court, therefore, passed a decree under R. 3 of O. XXIII of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 hereinafter called the 'Code'.

(3.) The plaintiff-respondent felt aggrieved by the decree of the trial Court and preferred an appeal asserting that there was no valid settlement/compromise between him and the defendant-appellant as envisaged by R. 3 of O. XXIII of the Code.