THAKUR PRASAD SINGH Vs. BABUI HARPEARI KUAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an appeal under Order 43, Rule 1(m), Civil P.C., from an order under Rule 3, Order 23 recording a compromise between the plaintiff and defendant 1 in a suit which was instituted on 2 January, 1932. The petition of compromise bearing the signature of defendant 1 and of his pleader was presented on 2nd May 1932, but the order directing the compromise to be recorded was not passed until 25 March 1935. I would like to say at the outset that a Court to whom a petition of compromise is presented should not thus delay passing an order for recording the compromise. Under Order 23, Rule 3 the Court is to pass an order directing the compromise to be recorded and this should be done at once. The Court is also to pass a decree in accordance with the compromise so far as it relates to the suit, and the passing of the decree may, if necessary be postponed till the hearing of the suit if there is a question how the interests of other parties to the suit, who have not entered into the compromise, would be affected by it, but this is no reason to defer the actual recording of the agreement or compromise. Had a correct procedure been followed in this instance a good deal of trouble would have been avoided. The hearing of the suit commenced on 15 February 1935, and on 1 March 1935 defendant 1 presented a petition asking for leave to file a written statement contesting the suit. His case is that he never entered into a compromise, that on the date when the petition was presented he was not in Gaya at all, that he had put his signature on a blank paper for the purpose of having a written statement in this very suit written out upon it, and by fraud of his karpardaz a forged petition of compromise was written on the paper instead of the written statement and was filed in the suit. The point for decision in the appeal is the simple question of fact whether the defendant had entered into the alleged agreement or not. (His Lordship then examined the evidence and held that he did enter into the compromise and the judgment concluded.) I would dismiss the appeal with costs. Let the record be sent down to the lower Court at once for further proceedings in the suit. Mohamad Noor, J.

(2.) I agree.