NIDHPAL SHARMA Vs. UNION OFINDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS application under Article 133 of the Constitution of India by Nidhpal Sharma and two others, auction-purchasers, for a certificate to appeal to the Supreme Court has been referred to the Full Bench to resolve the conflict between two earlier decisions of this Court, namely, the unreported decision in Lala Devi Charan v. Smt. Duloo, Supreme Court Appeal No. 111 of 1958, dated 7-11-1958 (All) and Janki Prasad v. Kailash, AIR 1956 All 735.

(2.) THE facts of the case material for the decision of the present application are that in suit No. 404 of 1952 the Union of India obtained a decree against Messrs. Palson Soap Mills and Company through Vishwapal Sharma for Rupees Two Lacs and odd from the Court of the Subordinate Judge First Class, Delhi, and the execution thereof was transferred to the Court of the Civil Judge, Mathura, where many houses belonging to the judgment-debtor were attached and eventually auctioned. THEy were purchased by the present applicants for a paltry sum of a few hundred rupees. THE applicants are near relations of the Judgment-debtor, Vishwapal Sharma. Applicants Nos 1 and 2 are his sons, while applicant No. 3 is the widow of his predeceased son.

(3.) THE material part of Article 133(1) of the Constitution of India runs as below: "An appeal shall lie to the Supreme Court from any judgment, decree or final order in a civil proceeding of a High Court in the territory of India if the High Court certifies- (a) that the amount or value of the subject-matter of the dispute in the court of first instance and still in dispute on appeal was and is not less than twenty thousand rupees or such other sum as may be specified in that behalf by Parliament by law; or (b) that the judgment, decree or final order involves directly or indirectly some claim or question respecting property of the like amount or value; or (c) that the case is a fit one for appeal to the Supreme Court. It is not in dispute that the value of the property auctioned and purchased by the applicants exceeds twenty thousand rupees. Consequently, the applicants can appeal, as a matter of right, to the Supreme Court, if the High Court's order dated 13-1-1964, sought to be challenged before the Supreme Court, is or amounts to a "judgment, decree or final order in a civil proceeding".