RIKHI RAM Vs. RADHE SHIAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS application is made on the ground that the learned Munsif had no jurisdiction to pass an order under Section 151, Civil P.C. which had the effect of enlarging a passage way in the house of the plaintiff-opposite-party. The facts found by the Munsif are that in a partition suit the parties had come to an agreement under which part of a house was allotted to the plaintiff, and the house was partitioned by metes and bounds in accordance with that compromise and the decree based upon it. It had not however been noticed by either of the parties at the time of making the compromise or by the Court in passing the decree that the map only allowed the plaintiff a passage of only 11 inches wide with the result that this decree "would have made access to a big portion of the plaintiff's house impossible." In these circumstances the Munsif passed an order which purports to be an order under Section 151, Indian Penal Code, directing the defendants to give 13 inches of land to allow the plaintiff a passage of 2 feet. It is argued that the Munsif had no jurisdiction to pass this order as there was a remedy provided by the Civil Procedure Code, viz., an appeal from the decree. The Munsif has pointed out however that the defect in the map was not detected by anyone at the time when the decree was given, and the only way in which it can be corrected now is by an order passed by one of the special sections of the Civil Procedure Code, by which the Court has inherent power to correct mistakes. It is possible that the correction might be made under Section 152 or Section 153 as well as Section 151, but I think that there is no doubt that the Court does possess inherent power to correct a mistake that would render infructuons an agreement between the parties which had been approved by the Court and made the basis of the decree. A Bench of this Court has approved the action of the lower Court in somewhat similar circumstances in the case of Azizullah Khan V/s. Court of Wards, Shahjahanpur . I consider that the order of, the Munsif is an eminently reasonable one and that in passing it he did not act without jurisdiction. The result is that the application fails and is dismissed with costs.