SARDARA SINGH Vs. GRAM PANCHAYAT (GRAM SABHA) SARANGPUR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The respondents (Gram Panchayat, Sarangpur and others) filed the suit for possession of a site against the appellants. According to the respondents the site was situate in village Sarangpur, Tehsil Kharar, and as used as Dharamsala by the inhabitants of the village which was managed by the Panchayat. The Dharamsala fell down and the appellants whose house happened to be near it took possession of the disputed site. The appellants denied the allegations and contested the suit. The trial Court decreed it in favour of respondents. The appellants filed an appeal and the same was dismissed by the learned District Judge, Chandigarh, vide order dated May 7, 1968. It is against this order that the present regular second appeal is directed.

(2.) The only point argued by the learned counsel for the appellants is that the trial Court as also the lower appellate Court erred in placing reliance on the recital of the boundaries made in the sale-deed Exhibit P.6. According to the learned counsel, the recitals of the boundaries in documents including title-deed between strangers are inadmissible in evidence. Reliance has been placed on Lajpat Rai and others v. Faiz Ahmed and others,1927 AIR(Lah) 448 and Soney Lall Jha and another v. Darbdeo Narain Singh and others,1935 AIR(Pat) 167

(3.) The ratio of the two authorities cited by the learned counsel for the appellants is not applicable to the facts of this case. In Lajpat Rai's case , it was held that a document between strangers to the suit in which mention is made of one of the parties to the suit or their predecessors as holding the land lying on the boundaries of the lands belonging to the executants of the document is not admissible in evidence. In that case, the executant of the document who was not dead was not produced as witness. In the instant case, the executants of sale-deed Exhibit P.6 were dead.