SANJEEV KUMAR Vs. BERA RAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By this common judgment, I intend to dispose of two cases i.e. bearing RSA-1374-2016 titled as 'Sanjeev Kumar vs. Bera Ram and others' and CR-8121-2016 titled as 'Sanjeev Kumar vs. Bera Ram and others'.

(2.) In nutshell, facts of the case are that plaintiff Bera Ram and his wife Smt. Botti Devi, had brought a suit against defendants Ishar Singh and his son Sanjeev Kumar, besides Municipal Corporation, Manimajra, Chandigarh, for grant of permanent injunction, restraining defendants No. 1 and 2 or persons claiming under them, from digging and making basement in their four storey constructed House No. 206/1, Street No. 6, Manimajra Town, Chandigarh, adjoining to the house of plaintiffs. In addition to that praying for grant of mandatory injunction directing defendants No. 1 and 2 to stop the illegal digging and making of basement in their property and further issuance of direction to defendants No. 1 to 3 to fill up the dug portion with earth upto the ground level.

(3.) As per case of the plaintiffs, they had purchased House No. 60, Street No.6, Manimajra Town, U.T., Chandigarh, vide a registered sale deed and presently about 15 members of plaintiff's family are residing in the said house; that towards Eastern side of the house is situated House No. 206/1, belonging to defendants No. 1 and 2 Ishwar Singh and Sanjeev Kumar, where they were residing. The front of house of defendants is only 7' wide and the building is constructed upto 4 storeys. Of the late, defendants No. 1 and 2 started digging basement in their house for construction of another floor for commercial purposes. House of plaintiffs and house of defendants No. 1 and 2 share a common basement wall. The construction of basement by defendants No. 1 and 2 would not be feasible as it will not be able to sustain the load of both the houses of the plaintiffs and defendants No. 1 and 2 and allowing such construction would expose the house of the plaintiffs to the risk of collapse of entire building; that the plaintiffs had filed a similar suit against defendants earlier, where the present defendants had given a statement that they would not dig the basement in the suit property; that in view of the said statement, the Court directed that parties would be bound by their statements and the suit was dismissed having become infructuous. However, despite the undertaking, they did not stop the work of construction of basement in their house and rather they started doing it from rear entrance of the house. On a complaint made by the plaintiffs, defendant No. 3 had put a truck load of debris in front of the house of the defendants in order to fill up the illegal construction of the basement. Defendant No.3 had observed that there is apprehension of collapsing of the house of the plaintiffs on account of digging of the basement by the defendants. The matter was reported in the local newspapers as well. The police officials visited the residence of the parties and directed the defendants to stop the illegal work but once the matter cooled down, the defendants started digging up the basement again. The matter was reported to the Municipal Corporation, Manimajra, Chandigarh on 4.3.2013 and officials of defendant No.3 had visited the place. The defendants stopped the digging of the basement but again they illegally started their work later on. Since such defendants were adamant, not to stop the illegal construction, the plaintiffs had brought the suit in question.