GURMAIL SINGH Vs. BHAGWAN SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE appellants lay challenge to judgments and decrees, passed by the Civil Judge (Senior Division), Sirsa, dated 24.03.1999 and the Additional District Judge, Sirsa, dated 11.09.2003, decreeing the suit filed by the respondents and dismissing the appeal filed by the appellants.

(2.) THE plaintiffs-respondents filed a suit for declaration praying that as the mortgages created on 27.08.1932 and 30.12.1932 have not been redeemed, within thirty years, the plaintiffs have become owners in possession of the suit land. The defendants-appellants denied the averments in the plaint and prayed for dismissal of the suit.

(3.) COUNSEL for the parties are ad idem that as the substantial question of law that arises for consideration, namely, the period of limitation that governs the filing of an application or a suit for redemption of a usufructuary mortgage has been answered by a Full Bench of this Court in RSA No. 1029 of 1988 titled as Ram Kishan and others v. Sheo Ram and others, 2008(1) RCR(Civil) 334, decided on 12.12.2007, the present appeal will have to be decided in terms thereof. As noticed hereinabove, the learned courts below have held that as the period for redeeming the mortgage has expired, the respondents have become owners by efflux of time. The question that requires adjudication is the nature of the mortgage and the period of limitation that governs an application for redemption of a usufructuary mortgage. The period of limitation that governs the filing of an application for redemption of a usufructuary mortgage came up for consideration before a Full bench in Ram Kishan and others v. Sheo Ram and others (supra). The questions posed before the Full Bench were :- 1. Whether the right to seek redemption would arise on the date of mortgage itself in case of usufructuary mortgage when no time limit is fixed to seek redemption ? 2. Whether there is any time limit in the case of usufructuary mortgage or to get his property redeemed ? After considering the above questions in detail, the Full Beach concluded as follows :-