SURJIT SINGH Vs. NITA DEVI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS revision petition is directed against the judgment and decree of the trial Court dated September 7, 1982 whereby the suit filed by the plaintiff-petitioners under Section 6 of the Specific Relief Act, (hereinafter called the Act), for delivery of possession of the premises in dispute, was dismissed.

(2.) THE plaintiffs filed the suit under Section 6 of the Act, for the delivery of possession of the premises, known as Satkar Hotel. According to them, the said hotel was owned by defendant No. 1 Smt. Nita Devi whereas the other defendants claimed that the said property was owned by M/s Sant Mills, (Regd.) Jalandhar Road, Hoshiarpur. According to the plaintiffs, the premises were leased out to them on October 8, 1977 at the rate of Rs. 6,500 per month by Anand Tulsi, the husband of Smt. Nita Devi, defendant, and by her. Since then they are running the hotel in the said premises under the name and style of Satkar Hotel. In October, 1978, Anand Tulsi, husband of Smt. Nita Devi died. No receipt for the rent received was issued by Smt. Nita Devi, defendant, and her husband. Subsequently, on November 5, 1978, defendant No. 1, along with five or six other persons threatened to take forcible possession of the hotel. Thus, on November 6, 1978, plaintiff No. 1 filed the suit for the grant of the permanent injunction and also moved the application for the grant of the temporary injunction restraining defendant No. 1 from taking forcible possession thereof. The said application was allowed. In spite of it, defendant Nos. 1 and 2, forcibly dispossessed the plaintiffs from the said premises on November 6, 1978; hence the present suit on April 26, 1979. The suit was contested inter alia on the ground that it was barred under Order 11, Rule 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure as well as by the principles of res judicata because of the earlier suit filed by the plaintiffs for the grant or the permanent injunction. On merits, it was denied that the disputed property was leased out to the plaintiffs. According to the defendants, M/s Walia Sandhir and Company through Parsin Kumar were the tenants on the premises, in dispute, under M/s Sant Mills, Hoshiarpur, vide rent note dated November 29, 1977, with effect from October 15, 1977, at a monthly rent of Rs. 1,100 and that the said tenants were in possession of the hotel. It was further pleaded that in fact, the tenants, M/s Walia Sandhir and Company vacated the premises on November 5, 1978, and relinquished possession thereof to M/s Sant Mills, Hoshiarpur, its owners. Under the circumstances, the question of dispossessing the plaintiffs illegally therefrom did not arise. Surprisingly, the trial Court framed as many as eight issues in the suit whereas the only relevant issue was issue No. 3 which was to the following effect -

(3.) THE trial Court after discussing the entire evidence, documentary as well as oral, has given a firm finding that the plaintiffs had miserably failed to prove that they were in actual possession of the premises, in dispute, up to November 6, 1978 and, further, that they had been wrongly dispossessed by defendant Nos. 1 and 2 from the premises, in dispute. It being a finding of fact, could not be challenged in this revision petition.