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2012 (5) TMI 648 - SC - Indian LawsSuit for permanent injunction - principles of res judicata - Entitlement to be declared as owners of half portions of the property - HELD THAT:- It would not be an exaggeration but on the contrary an understatement if it is said that all facets of fraud get attracted to the case at hand. A rustic and illiterate woman is taken to court by a relation on the plea of creation of a lease deed and magically in a hurried manner the plaint is presented, written statement is drafted and filed, statement is recorded and a decree is passed within three days. On a perusal of the decree it is manifest that there is no reference of any kind of family arrangement and there is total non-application of mind. It only mentions there is consent in the written statement and hence, suit has to be decreed. Be it noted, it was a suit for permanent injunction. There was an allegation that the respondent was interfering with the possession of the plaintiff. What could have transpired that the defendant would go with the plaintiff and accede to all the reliefs. It not only gives rise to a doubt but on a first look one can feel that there is some kind of foul play. However, the learned trial Judge who decreed the first suit on 27.11.1973 did not look at these aspects. When the second suit was filed in 1984 for title and the third suit was filed for possession thereafter, the courts below had routinely followed the principles relating to consent decree and did not dwell deep to find out how the fraud was manifestly writ large. It was too obvious to ignore. The courts below have gone by the concept that there was no adequate material to establish that there was fraud, though it was telltale. That apart, the foundation was the family arrangement. We have already held that it was not bona fide, but, unfortunately the courts as well as the High Court have held that it is a common phenomenon that the people in certain areas give their property to their close relations. We have already indicated that by giving the entire property and putting him in possession she would have been absolutely landless and would have been in penury. It is unimaginable that a person would divest herself of one’s own property in entirety in lieu of nothing. No iota of evidence has been brought on record that Bhali, the respondent herein, had given anything to Badami in the arrangement. It is easily perceivable that the rustic woman was also not old. Though the decree was passed in 1973 wherein it was alleged that the defendant was already in possession, she lived up to 1992 and expired after 19 years. It is a matter of record that the possession was not taken over and inference has been drawn that possibly there was an implied agreement that the decree would be given effect to after her death. All these reasonings are absolutely non-plausible and common sense does not even remotely give consent to them. It is fraudulent all the way. The whole thing was buttressed on the edifice of fraud and it needs no special emphasis to state that what is pyramided on fraud is bound to decay. In this regard we may profitably quote a statement by a great thinker: “Fraud generally lights a candle for justice to get a look at it; and rogue’s pen indites the warrant for his own arrest.” Ex consequenti, the appeal is allowed and the judgment and decree of the High Court in the Second Appeal as well as the judgments and decrees of the courts below are hereby set aside and as a natural corollary the judgment and decree dated 27.11.1973 is also set aside. There shall be no order as to costs.
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