KUNWAR RAM KRISHNA Vs. ANAND KRISHNA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The plaintiffs, through their mother, and certain relations transferred to the defendant-appellant two items of property, one being landed property and the other being certain houses occupied by tenants. The present suit was brought by the plaintiff-respondents to obtain a declaration that the house property was never intended to be sold and to be purchased and that, therefore, the plaintiff's title to the property remains intact. In the alternative the plaintiffs ask for delivery of possession. The defence was that parties did in fact intend to sell and did sell the house property and the defendant is the owner of the property and he is in possession of the same. The Court of first instance dismissed the suit. The Court below has decreed the suit for possession with respect of one-half of the property on the ground that the plaintiffs title extended to only a half share. The Court found that the plaintiffs were out of possession.

(2.) In this Court, it has been contended that it was not open to the plaintiffs to prove the oral agreement set up by them which was calculated to contradict the registered sale-deed. It is further urged that if the plaintiffs case be true, the parties were equally to blame for perpetrating a fraud on the law of Registration and, therefore, the plaintiffs were not entitled to any relief from a Court of justice. There is a cross-objection on behalf of the plaintiffs but it has not been pressed.

(3.) The first point has to be determined on a proper interpretation of two sections one of the Evidence Act, Section 92 and the other of Section 54, T.P. Act. The latter provision of law enacts that in the case of tangible immovable property of the value of Rs. 100 or more, a sale can be effected by a registered instrument. This means that on the execution of the document of sale and the registration of it, title passes from the vendor to the vendee. Section 92, Evidence Act lays down: When the terms of a contract, grant or other disposition of property or any matter required by law to be reduced to the form of a document, have been proved according to the last section (that is to say, by the production of the original document), no evidence of any oral agreement or statement shall be admitted as between the parties to such instrument or their representatives-in-interest, for the purpose of contradicting, varying, adding to, or subtracting from, its terms.