KAMALA KUNWAR Vs. LAKSHMAN GOALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This application under S. 115 of the Civil Procedure Code raises an important question about the jurisdiction of the Civil Court in matters which have already been the subject of an award under the Land Acquisition Act.

(2.) The petitioner is a defendant in a civil suit instituted by the opposite parties Nos. 1 and 2 as plaintiffs being Title Suit No. 699 if 1959. In that suit the plaintiffs pray for a declaration of their title to the amount of compensation awarded in favour of the petitioner defendant by the Land Acquisition Collector and for an injunction restraining the petitioner from withdrawing the said amount from the Court of the Special Land Acquisition Judge of 24 Parganas. Analysing the plaint it appears that the whole of the plaintiffs allegation in that suit is that one of them did not receive notice under Section 12(2) of the Land Acquisition Act, that the defendant obtained the award fraudulently behind their back, that the plaintiffs were the owners in possession of the structures for the acquisition of which compensation was awarded, and that the plaintiffs and not the defendant petitioner were entitled to the compensation. In that suit the defendants were petitioners and the Stat of West Bengal was a pro-forma defendant.

(3.) The petitioner in his written-statement in the suit denied the claim of the plaintiffs and denied further that the plaintiffs were the owners in possession of the structures. The petitioner defendant also set out his title to those structures.