TMI Blog1987 (4) TMI 476X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ties could not settle the matter, we have therefore decided the appeal on merits. - Civil Appeal No. 638 of 1980 - - - Dated:- 8-4-1987 - Singh, K. N. (J) And Mukharji, Sabyasachi (J),JJ. JUDGMENT The Judgment of the Court was delivered by Singh, J. This appeal by special leave is directed against the judgment of the High Court of Allahabad dated 18th February, 1978 dismissing the appeal preferred by the appellant against the judgment and decree of the Additional Civil Judge, Lucknow, dismissing the suit instituted by him for possession of the property in dispute. The property in dispute situate at Nawal Kishore Road, Lucknow, consists of buildings and land which have been in the occupation of the Bishun Narain School. In 1938, certain public spirited persons of Lucknow city formed a society registered as the Progressive Education Society for establishing educational institution for imparting education. Raja Ram Kumar Bhargava who owned considerable property, in the Lucknow city, was elected Chairman of the Society. He permitted the society to run an English Middle School on rent in his building. which stood on the site in dispute, the school was commonly known as the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ion by the Raja or any of his family members. It appears that Raja Ram Kumar Bhargava had taken considerable amount of money as loan from Central Bank of India and to secure the loan he executed a mortgage deed, on March 27, 1957 mortgaging a number of properties including the property in dispute occupied by the school, in favour of the Central Bank of India. The loan, however, could not be repaid. Raja Ram Kumar Bhargava offered to sell the mortgaged property and on negotiations, the Bank agreed to release the property from mortgage to enable Raja Ram Kumar Bhargava to sell the same for raising money to pay off the loan. The Bank released the property under a written agreement dated 27th June, 1961 and in pursuance thereof Raja Ram Kumar Bhargava along with his three minor sons executed a Sale Deed on 27th June, 1961 transferring the property in dispute occupied by the school along with other property to Ram Sarup Gupta, the plaintiff-appellant. In the registered sale deed the property in dispute was described as Portion II of ITD Block in Hazratganj, Lucknow, bearing house No. C-43/111 in the occupation of Bishun Narain High School. Ram Sarup Gupta the appellant after purchasin ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e the license or to obtain possession of the property. On these findings the trial court dismissed the suit. The appellant took the matter in appeal before the High Court, the appeal came up for hearing before a Division Bench consisting of P.N. Jha and K.S. Verma. JJ. There was difference of opinion between two learned Judges. D.N. Jha, J. affirmed the findings of the trial court and opined that since license granted to the school was irrevocable. the appellant was not entitled to any relief. K.S. Verma, J. took a contrary view, according to him the defendants had failed to raise requisite plea that the license granted to them was irrevocable as contemplated by Section 60 (b) of the Act and they had further failed to produce any positive evidence to prove the terms and conditions of the license showing that the license was irrevocable. The learned Judge held that the defendants plea that they had made permanent constructions on the land in pursuance of the license incurring expenses, could not be considered as the defendants had failed to plead the necessary facts in their written statement, the evidence produced by them could not be considered. On these findings the learned judge ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... to support that plea. It is well settled that in the absence of pleading, evidence, if any, produced by the parties cannot be considered. It is also equally settled that no party should be permitted to travel beyond its pleading and that all necessary and material facts should be pleaded by the party in support of the case set up by it. The object and purpose of pleading is to enable the adversary party to know the case it has to meet. In order to have a fair trial it is imperative that the party should state the essential material facts so that other party may not be taken by surprise. The pleadings however should receive a liberal construction, no pedantic approach should be adopted to defeat justice on hair splitting technicalities. Sometimes, pleadings are expressed in words which may not expressly make out a case in accordance with strict interpretation of law, in such a case it is the duty of the Court to ascertain the substance of the pleadings to determine the question. It is not desirable to place undue emphasis on form, instead the substance of the pleadings should be considered. Whenever the question about lack of pleading is raised the enquiry should not be so much abo ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... tion of license expressly stated that the school had made pucca constructions and had been making various substantial additions and alterations in the building without any objection. Raja Ram Kumar Bhargava had given away the premises in dispute permanently to the school and they have been in occupation of the premises for the last 20 years and during that period they have been making substantial additions and alterations in the building including replastering, re-flooring etc. by incurring heavy expenses. In paragraph 18 of their written statement they pleaded that the license was coupled with a grant and in any case it was a permanent and irrevocable license in favour of the school and the same could not be revoked by the plaintiff. The pleadings so raised make it apparently clear that the defendants had raised a specific plea that the license was coupled with grant, it was a permanent and irrevocable license and in pursuance of the licence the licensee had carried out work of permanent character incurring expenses for the advancement of the purpose for which the license had been granted. In fact, issue numbers 4, 5 and 6 framed by the trial court relate to the question whether l ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... mission on a detailed scrutiny of the pleadings. We have already referred to the pleadings raised by the defendants which contain necessary facts to sustain the pleading of the license being irrevocable under section 60 (b) of the Act. It is well settled that the pleadings need not reproduce the exact words or expressions as contained in the statute, nor the question of law is required to be pleaded. The substance of the respondents' pleadings clearly informed that their case was that they had made constructions on the land acting upon the licence which substantially met the requirement of law. Before we discuss the authorities cited by the appellants' counsel we consider it necessary to briefly refer to the provisions of the Act regulating the grant, revocation of license and other allied matters and also the evidence available on record. License as defined by Section 52 of the Act means grant of permission, by a person to the other, a right to do or continue to do, in or upon, the immovable property of the grantor, something which would, in the absence of such right, be unlawful. Such right does not amount to an easement or any interest in the property. The rights so conferred is ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... expressly or impliedly that the license which may not prima facie fall within either of the two categories of license (as contemplated by section 60) should nevertheless be irrevocable. The same view was taken by Das, J. (as he then was) in Dominion of India v. Sohan Lal, AIR 1950 EP 40. Bombay High Court has also taken the same view in H.F. De Souza v. Childrens Education Uplift Society, AIR 1959 Bombay 533. The parties may agree expressly or impliedly that a license which is prima facie revocable not failing within either of the two categories of license as contemplated by Section 60 of the Act shall be irrevocable. Such agreement may be in writing or otherwise and its terms or conditions may be express or implied. A license may be oral also in that case, terms, conditions and the nature of the license, can be gathered from. the purpose for which the license is granted coupled with the conduct of the parties and the circumstances which may have let to the grant of the license. In their pleadings the defendants had invoked the protection of both the clauses of Section 60 of the Act, firstly, they pleaded that the license was coupled with the transfer of property inasmuch as the s ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ct, the licensee could reasonably entertain a belief that the licensor had permitted the construction on the land, and in pursuance thereof, the licensee made constructions and incurred expenses. The result is that the respondents "acting upon the license" had executed works by incurring expenses which rendered the license irrevocable. As regard evidence we have perused the statement of Ganga Prasad Dhayani, DW 1, Shanker Dutt, DW 2, and Bhola, DW 3. Their testimony fully established that the school had constructed three class rooms, latrin and urinals and incurred expenses. Raja Ram Kumar Bhargava in his testimony claimed that the aforesaid constructions had been made by a trust constituted by his family members, but no account books were filed in support of the statement, although it was admitted that the trust maintained accounts on the other hand vouchers were produced on behalf of the defendants showing that the management had spent money for making constructions. Raja Ram Kumar Bhargava who was examined as a witness on behalf of the plaintiff admitted in his testimony that he continued to be the president of the school since 1938 to 1961 and thereafter his wife has continued ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ecuting work c-f a permanent character, he did so, in the belief that being a tenant he would become statutory purchaser of the land or that the oral agreement of sale will one fine day be implemented. The execution of the work was done either in the capacity as a tenant or as a prospective purchaser but not as a licensee. The decision has no application to the facts of the present case as admittedly the school was a licensee and in that capacity it executed works of a permanent character, by incurring expenses and this plea was raised at the initial stage before the trial court. Reference was made to a number of decisions of the High Court in support of the proposition that a license is irrevocable under section 60(b) of the Act only if three conditions are fulfilled, namely, (i) the licensee executed work of a permanent character, (ii) he did so acting upon the license, and (iii) he incurred expenses in doing so. The onus of proving these facts lie upon the licensee and in the absence of any evidence on these questions the license could not be irrevocable under section 60(b) of the Act. Decisions relied are Raghbir Saran v. Param Kirti Saran, AIR 1962 All. 444; Deep Chand v. Ka ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the Inspector of Schools, Lucknow. In that letter Raja Ram Kumar stated "I have given my building free of rent to the Narhi Middle School. I now write to inform you that the premises at present in the occupation of the school free of rent which may be considered my permanent contribution to the cause of the school." On the receipt of that letter the Education Department granted recognition to the school. The proceedings of the Managing Committee of the school held on January 6, 1942 (Ext. B-16) show that a meeting of the Managing Committee was held on that day president over by Raja Ram Kumar Bhargava and in that meeting the Managing Committee expressed its deep sense of appreciation and grateful thanks to Raja Ram Kumar Bhargava for donating the building to the school for procuring the recognition to the school from the U.P. Government, and it further resolved to name the school as the Bishun Narain Anglo Vernacular School to perpetuate the memory of Shri Bishun Narain Bhargava father of Raja Ram Kumar Bhargava. These documents clearly indicate that Raja Ram Kumar Bhargava had permanently donated the property in dispute to the school and in lieu thereof the institution was named ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... record, have fully established that Raja Ram Kumar Bhargava had granted license to the school in respect of the building and the land attached to it for the purpose of imparting education and the school in furtherance of that purpose constructed additional buildings and it further incurred expenses in carrying out modification and extensive repairs in the existing buildings during the period, Raja Ram Kumar Bhargava continued to be the President of the Managing Committee of the school. He never raised any objection to it and there is nothing on record to show that licensor had retained right to revoke the license. If a person allows another to build on his land in the furtherance of the purpose for which he had granted license, subject to any agreement to the contrary cannot turn round, later on, to revoke the license. This principle is codified is Section 60(b) of the Act. Moreover, conduct of the parties has been such that equity will presume the existence of a condition of the license by plain implication to show that license was perpetual and irrevocable. That being so, Raja Ram Kumar Bhargava could not revoke the license or evict the school and the appellant being transferee f ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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