Court No. - 4
Case :- MATTERS UNDER ARTICLE 227 No. - 2866 of 2021 Petitioner :- Ravindra And 5 Others Respondent :- State Of U P And 3 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Samarath Singh,Anil Kumar Rai Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.
Hon'ble Prakash Padia,J.
Heard learned counsel for the parties through video conferencing and perused the record.
Learned counsel for the petitioner/plaintiff at the outset submits that petitioner is not aggrieved by the impugned order dated 5 March 2021 passed by the Appellate Court/Additional District and Sessions Judge, Court No. 13, Muzaffarnagar, allowing the substitution application filed by the respondent/defendant (appellants) but confines the petition to the observations made on merit going to the root of the lis i.e. whether the suit property is an agricultural land covered under the U.P. Zamindari Abolition and Land Reforms Act, 1950.
Civil suit being Suit No. 1214 of 2009 (Harpal Singh and Others Vs. State of U.P. and others) came to be filed by the ancestors of the petitioner in the court of Civil Judge (Senior Division), Muzaffarnagar, on 16 November 2009, seeking permanent injunction against the State-respondents from dispossession of the suit property. The trial court granted injunction on 4 December 2010 to the plaintiff. Aggrieved, the respondents preferred an appeal being Misc. Appeal No. 6 of 2011 (State of U.P. and others vs. Harpal Singh and others). During the pendency of the appeal, the plaintiff died, consequently, a substitution application was filed by the petitioners.
It is urged by learned counsel for the petitioner that while allowing the substitution application, the appellate court has made observations on merit touching upon the status and nature of the suit property that petitioner has admitted that the suit property is an agricultural land. It is further urged that no such plea has been taken in the plaint and the matter is yet to be decided inter se parties in the suit.
Observations on merit while deciding the substitution application in pending appeal, was unwarranted.
The Court finds merit in the submission advanced by learned counsel for the petitioner, in view thereof, it is provided that the appeal being Civil Misc. Appeal No. 6 of 2011, pending before Additional District and Sessions Judge, Muzaffarnagar, shall be decided on merit. Observations made in the order dated 5 March 2021 touching upon the merit, shall not bind the trial court and shall decide the issue with regard to the status and nature of the suit property strictly on merit on the parties adducing evidence thereon.
With the aforesaid observations/directions, the petition is disposed of.
Order Date :- 12.8.2021 Swati