JASWANT SINGH Vs. STATE OF HIMACHAL PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS appeal under clause 10 of the Letters Patent of the High Court of Judicature at Lahore is directed against the judgment dated 15.12.1997 passed by a learned single Judge whereby the agreement dated 11.8.1981 has been held inadmissible in evidence for want of registration, holding it to be a lease for five years.

(2.) THE brief facts of the case are that the appellants, who are plaintiffs in Civil Suit No. 188 of 1995 pending before the learned single Judge, are owners of the land comprising Khasra No. 425, 442, 453 and 448 measuring 66-4-4 Bighas situated in Village Chamukha, Pargna Dehar, Tehsil Sundernagar, District Mandi (hereinafter called 'the suit land'). They entered into an Agreement dated 11.8.1981 with the Department of Horticulture of the State of Himachal Pradesh under which the possession of the suit land was handed over to the Department of Horticulture with effect from 15.8.1981 to 15.8.1986 to raise a nursery of fruit plants on the terms and conditions mentioned therein. The relevant terms and conditions are as under :-

(3.) WHEN the statement of plaintiff Rattan Singh was being recorded and he wanted to prove in evidence the copy of the agreement dated 11.8.1981 which was produced by the defendants and admitted by the plaintiffs, a question arose whether it is admissible in evidence for want of registration and proper stamp duty, which has been decided by the impugned order against the plaintiffs. In the appeal filed by the plaintiffs against the impugned order, a preliminary objection regarding its maintainability was raised in view of the Division Bench judgment of this Court in M/s. R.J. Shah v. H.P.S.E.B., 1994 (Suppl.) Sim. L.C. 308 wherein it was held that :