T.N. Rajasekar
Vs. N. Kasiviswanathan & Ors [2005] Insc 375 (28 July 2005)
Ruma
Pal & Dr. Ar. Lakshmanan
(Arising
out of S.L.P.(C) Nos.14332-14335 of 2003) Dr. AR. Lakshmanan, J.
Leave
granted.
The
above appeals were preferred by the appellant/plaintiff against the final
judgment dated 11.03.2003 passed by the High Court of Judicature at Madras in O.S.A. Nos. 23 and 24 of 2003
and Cross Objection Nos. 4 and 5 of 2003. Respondent Nos. 1-3 T.N. Kasiviswanathan,
T.N. Natarajan and T.N. Shanmughavel and the appellant T.N. Rajasekar are
brothers. The fourth respondent Kalyani Gopalan is the sister of the appellant.
The appellant's brother T.N. Ganapathi was sick and died on 06.05.1997 leaving
the appellant and the respondents herein as his legal representatives of
Class-II heir as per the Hindu Succession Act.
The
suit property is the absolute property of T.N. Ganapthi. He died unmarried and
issueless. The appellant and the respondents have succeeded to his estate.
During
the pendency of the appeal, the appellant T.N. Rajasekar and the first
respondent T.N. Kasiviswanathan died. Their legal representatives were brought
on record in I.A.No. 1 of 2005 and I.A.Nos. 5-8 of 2004 respectively.
The
appellant filed C.S. No. 110 of 1999 on the original side of the High Court for
a preliminary decree for partition claiming 1/5th share for himself and for
other incidental and ancillary reliefs. The respondents have not filed any
written statement. The learned single Judge passed the preliminary decree on
11.09.2000. The single Judge directed the respondents herein to remit a sum of
Rs.37,68,000/- into the Court and render accounts. Aggrieved by this order, the
respondents herein preferred O.S.A. No. 78 of 2001. The Division Bench of the
High Court directed the respondents to deposit only 1/5th share of Rs.
37,68,000/- i.e. Rs.7,53,000/- which is the due share of the appellant and that
there was no question of rendering accounts from the date of Power of Attorney
given by late T.N. Ganapathi. The Division Bench by judgment dated 04.04.2001
directed that the properties of late T.N. Ganapthi which existed on the date of
his death alone should be divided.
The
appellant herein filed application No. 204 of 2001 for passing a final decree
and for appointment of an Advocate Commissioner. On 05.08.2002, the learned
single Judge passed the final decree assessing the value of the properties of
Rs.2,98,79,569/- out of which the appellant's 1/5th share was Rs.59,75,914/-.
Towards the share of the appellant, he was allotted item No. 6 of the schedule
mentioned property i.e. House bearing Door No. 16, Dr. Vasudevan Street, Kilpauk,
Chennai 10 and the value of the house was assessed at Rs.1,50,00,000/-. Thus
it is evident that the appellant was allotted the house in excess of his share
of Rs.59,75,914/-, the difference of which i.e. value of the house allotted
deducting value of his share has to go to the other four legal representatives
i.e. Rs.90,24,086/-. The learned single Judge also ordered that this amount of owelty
to be adjusted from the land acquisition compensation amount due to the
appellant/plaintiff herein.
As
there was no specific direction in the judgment of the learned single Judge
regarding the allotment of properties to the respondents, the respondents filed
application No. 4307 of 2002 for specific order on other items of the
properties to them.
On the
application of the respondents for seeking specific direction for allotment of
properties, the learned single Judge ordered in the following terms on
22.11.2002.
(i)
Item No. 6 was allotted to the plaintiff towards his 1/5th share;
(ii)
The owelty amount of Rs.90,24,086/- being the excess value of Item No.6
allotted to the petitioner has to be paid by the plaintiff to the defendants as
owelty;
(iii)
Item Nos. 1 to 5, 7 as well as owelty amount in relation to Item No.6 allotted
to the respondents representing their 4/5th share of the schedule mentioned
property;
(iv)
The defendants should pay 4/5th share of Rs.28,681/- to the plaintiff. This has
already paid to the Advocate Commissioner by the plaintiff.
Aggrieved
by this judgment and order both in the application Nos. 204 of 2001 and 4307 of
2002, the respondents filed OSA 23 of 2003 and 24 of 2003 respectively.
The
appellant filed Cross Objections for the Commissioner's Report and also reply
affidavit to OSA Nos. 23 and 24. These appeals have been disposed of by the
Division Bench of the High Court on 11.3.2003 allowing the appeals filed by the
respondent partly by setting aside the direction issued by the learned single
Judge to adjust the owelty amount from out of the land acquisition compensation
proceedings. The Bench directed that the parties can get the compensation
amount independently according to their shares as and when the amounts are
deposited by the State Government. In other respects, the decree of the learned
single Judge was confirmed and the cross objections were dismissed. It is now
seen from the rejoinder affidavit that all the sharers have withdrawn their
respective land acquisition compensation amounts.
Against
the above judgment, the appellant preferred the Special Leave Petition Nos.
14332-14335 of 2003.
We
heard Mr. S.D.N. Vimalanathan, learned counsel for the appellant and Mr. A.T.M.
Sampath, learned counsel for the respondents. Mr. S.D.N. Vimalanathan made the
following submissions:-
a) The
order of the learned trial Judge and of the Division Bench is not correct in
stating the rough value given by the appellant/plaintiff in the plaint as Rs.1,50,00,000/-
for the purposes of valuation in the plaint as the valuation given in the
plaint is tentative and not based on the market value of the site and building
on the date of filing of the plaint;
b) All
the immoveable properties are valued by the approved engineer who was the
retired Chief Engineer for which no objections were raised by either parties;
c)
There cannot be any estoppel against the statute as the non-judicial stamp
papers to be supplied cannot be on the value stated in the plaint.
Concluding
his arguments, the learned counsel submitted that this Court should accept the
value of Item No. 6 as stated by the Commissioner and the owelty amount be
arrived at and as the appellant has deposited over and above their value to the
tune of Rs.60 lacs, suitable directions may be passed for adjustment. The
learned counsel also submitted that the learned Judges of the Division Bench
have not answered many of the contentions raised before them and, therefore,
such an omission by the learned Judges of the Division Bench amounts violation
of the principles laid down under Order XXVI Rule 13 of C.P.C. and Order XXXXI
Rule 31 and Rule 33 and the original side rules of the High Court and since
there is an apparent omission to answer the questions raised in the OSAs and
the cross objections except Item No. 6 and the said infirmities is not legally
sustainable, the matter may be remitted for a fresh consideration before the
Division Bench except Item No.6 of the plaint schedule.
Per
contra, Mr. A.T.M. Sampath, learned counsel for the contesting respondent
submitted that the appellant himself valued Item No.6 at Rs.1,50,00,000/- both
in the plaint as well as in the final decree application and that the Court
appointed Commissioner recorded the same in his report with reference to Item
No.6 of the suit item. He would also further submit that since the learned
Judges of the Division Bench have elaborately dealt with all the submissions
made by both the parties there is no need or necessity to remit the matter for
fresh consideration insofar as other items of the plaint schedule properties
are concerned.
We
have perused the entire pleadings and all the annexures filed along with the
appeals. We have also carefully perused the judgment under appeal. We are of
the opinion that there is no infirmity in the judgment passed by the learned
Judges of the Division Bench. The learned Judges in paragraphs 16 and 17 have
elaborately considered the valuation arrived at by the advocate Commissioner
and the valuation of Item No.6 suggested by the appellant and the respondent and
the decisions arrived at by the learned single Judge and ultimately held that
there is no infirmity in the determination and value of Item No.6 as made by
the learned single Judge.
As
already noticed, the learned single Judge passed the final decree assessing the
value of the properties at Rs.2,98,79,569/- out of which the appellant's 1/5th
share was Rs.59,75,914/- and towards the share of the appellant he was allotted
Item No.6 the house property situated at Kilpauk, Chennai, the value of which
was assessed at Rs.1,50,00,000/-. The appellant's 1/5th share comes to Rs.59,75,914/-.
The appellant, pursuant to the directions of this Court, have deposited Rs.60,00,000/-
in this Court which is now deposited in short term fixed deposit with the UCO
Bank, Supreme Court Compound, New, Delhi. Deducting the value of the house allotted to the share of the
appellant, the balance sum of Rs.90,24,086/- has to come to the other four
legal representatives. Deducting the sum of Rs.60,00,000/- which was deposited
by the appellant earlier, the appellant is now directed to pay the balance of
Rs.30,24,086/- with interest to the respondents as owelty amount as has been
directed in the lower Court's order. The appellant wants three weeks time to
deposit the same in this Court. We, therefore, grant three weeks' time from
today to deposit the balance of Rs.30,24,086/- in the UCO Bank towards the
credit of the present proceedings in this Court. The respondents are at liberty
to withdraw the entire sum deposited with accrued interest from the UCO Bank,
Supreme Court Compound, New
Delhi on production
of the copy of this judgment. On deposit of the balance amount of
Rs.30,24,086/-, the respondents shall hand over the peaceful vacant possession
of the suit Item No. 6 i.e. House bearing No. 16, Dr. Vasudevan Street, Kilpauk,
Chennai 600 010 to the appellant herein/plaintiff within one week thereafter.
The above directions shall be complied with punctually by both parties.
In the
result, the judgment of the Division Bench of the Madras High Court is
confirmed subject to the directions mentioned in paragraphs supra. The appeals
stand disposed of accordingly. There would be no order as to costs.
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