S RAGHBIR SINGH Vs. S SRANAGAT SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner is tenant of a chobara situate in Urdu Bazar (Now Rajinder Bazar) Jammu. The respondents are the landlords. A suit for ejectment was filed by the respondents against the petitioner on 15 -10 -73. The petitioner resisted the suit. During the pendency of the trial of the suit, the petitioner filed an application on 28 -5 -76, in the trial court, to the effect that the Assistant Commissioner (Nazoor Department) be summoned as a witness. The reason stated in the application was that the petitioner had received a communication from the Assistant Commissioner (Nazool Department) to the effect that he should not pay the rent any more to the respondent. The application was dismissed by the trial court on 15 -6 -76 and a revision against that order also met the same fate in the High Court. A few months after i. e. 13 -11 -76 an application was filed by the petitioner in the trial court seeking amendment of the written statement so as to incorporate therein a plea that the suit property belongs to the Nazool Department of the Government of Jammu and Kashmir and had been taken over by the Government of Jammu and Kashmir, with the result that the relationship of the landlord and tenant between the petitioner and the respondents had come to end. Vide order of the trial court dated 28 -12 -76 the petitioner was permitted to amend the written statement subject to payment of Rs. 40/ - as costs. The respondents preferred a revision petition against the said order and the Civil revision petition no. 95 of 1977 came to be decided on 13th December, 1978, and the order of the learned Munsiff was set aside. While allowing the said revision it was observed: -

(2.) AFTER the revision petition was allowed on 13 -12 -78, the parties appeared before the trial court and some further evidence was recorded. The tenant petitioner once again, on 13 -4 -79, filed an application seeking amendment of the written statement. By this application he sought to incorporate that during the pendency of the suit on 10 -7 -79, the Government of Jammu and Kashmir, which is the paramount owner of the property in dispute, had determined the lease of the respondent by ordering resumption of the Nazool land and as such the respondent landlord had lost the cause of action. A copy of Govt. order No - Rev (NDJ) 158 of -979, was filed along -with the application. The application was dismissed by the learned Munsiff vide order dtd. 30 -4 -80. It is that order of the learned Munsiff which the petitioner seeks to challenge by means of the present revision petition.

(3.) MR . J. P. Singh, learned counsel for the respondent has raised a preliminary objection to the maintainability of the .revision petition. It is urged that the earlier revision petition in which the matter in controversy was directly and substantially the same, having been decided by this court, the present revision petition was barred by the general principles of resjudicata. In support of his objections, Mr. J. P. Singh has relied upon the following observation of their lordships of the Supreme court reported in AIR 1978 S. C. 12831