Jagdish Chand vs Satvinder Singh And Others

Ajay Mohan Goel, J

This appeal has been filed by the appellant against the judgment and decree passed by the Court of learned Additional District Judge, Sirmaur, District Sirmaur at Nahan, in Civil Appeal No. 97-N/13 of 2016, titled as Satvinder Singh and another vs. Jagdish Chand and others, decided on 29.03.2019, vide which, learned Appellate Court set aside the judgment and decree passed by the learned Trial Court in favour of the present appellant.

During the pendency of this appeal, two applications have been filed under Order 22, Rule 4 of the Code of Civil Procedure, for bringing on record the legal representatives of deceased-respondents No. 12 and 13. A perusal of the averments made in these applications demonstrates that both the said respondents died when the first appeal was pending before the learned First Appellate Court. In other words, here is a case where the judgment and decree stood passed by the learned Appellate Court in ignorance of the factum of death of some of the parties before it. In my considered view, the judgment and decree so passed by the learned First Appellate Court is a nullity in view of law declared by Hon'ble Supreme Court of India in Gurnam Singh (Dead) Through Legal Representatives and others Versus Gurbachan Kaur (Dead) by Legal Representatives, (2017) 13 Supreme Court Cases 414.

Accordingly, without any further observation, this appeal is disposed of by setting aside the judgment and decree passed by the learned First Appellate Court (Additional District Judge, Sirmaur at Nahan) in Civil Appeal No. 97-N/13 of 2016, dated 29.03.2018 and by remanding the matter back to the learned Appellate Court to adjudicate the same afresh, after taking into consideration the factum of death of some of the parties before it. In the event of any application(s) being filed to bring on record the legal representatives of the deceased parties before it, the application(s) be decided by the learned Appellate Court, dispassionately, on their own merit, without being influenced by the observations made by this Court in this order. Represented parties are directed to appear before the Court of learned Additional District Judge, Sirmaur at Nahan, on 07.12.2020. It is clarified that this Court has not made any observation on the merit of the appeal and the judgments and decrees so passed by the learned Courts below. Record, if any, be forthwith returned to the Court concerned.

The appeal stands disposed of in above terms, so also pending miscellaneous application(s), if any.