- (1.) Leave granted.
(2.) This appeal is directed against a judgment and order dated 8.4.2004 whereby and whereunder the High Court of Judicature at Hyderabd set aside the judgment and order dated 24.4.1998 passed by the VII Senior Civil Judge, City Civil Court, Hyderabad in O.S. No. 573 of 1991 and remanded the matter back to the learned trial judge. Devi Singh is the predecessor-in-interest of the respondent. The original dispute between the parties centered round 1250 square yards of land purported to be situated in a market called "Maidan Bazaar Jamerath" situate at Karvan Aspan and bounded on the east by canal and police station, on the west by "Bakar Mandi, on the north by cement road, graveyard and huts belonging to the plaintiff and on the south by land, huts and graveyards belonging to the plaintiff. It was said to be the ancestral property of the plaintiff and was owned by him having been purchased by his ancestors.
(3.) Devi Singh preferred an appeal before this Court. The fact of the matter has been discussed in details by this Court in a judgment reported in Devi Singh v. Municipal Corporation, Hyderabad [(1973) 4 SCC 66]. From a perusal of the said judgment, it appears, that a purported claim was made by Dhan Singh over 2750 square yards bearing Survey Nos. 5943 and 5944 situated at Karwan Aspan on the premise that he had filed an application before the competent authority in the year 1921 stating that the same had fallen into the prohibited area. Indisputably, the property involved in the said suit had been acquired and compensation had been awarded to Dhan Singh for 1250 square yards and not for the entire plot of the area which is said to be 2750 square yards. This Court found that the plot for which compensation had been paid to Dhan Singh for an area of 1250 square yards was far removed from the Bazaar and there were several other plots which intervened. It was furthermore noticed that it was somewhat difficult on the present state of the record to reconcile the case of the defendant Corporation that the entire area covered by the sale deed had been acquired for which compensation had been paid to Dhan Singh with the relative situation of the Bazaar and the plot measuring 1250 square yards. It was held: 15. It is difficult to ignore the entire proceedings before the Sarfe-Khas and the documentary evidence according to which possession was given of the land or the property including the Bazaar by the Sarfe-Khas to the plaintiff after a full investigation of his claim in the matter. There was no allegation that all those proceedings were without jurisdiction or were collusive although it has now been suggested before us on behalf of the defendant Corporation that the Sarfe-Khas Department had ceased to exist in February 1949 by virtue of the Sarfe-Khas Merger Regulation 1358 Fasli. There is no indication in the orders of the various authorities including that of the Minister that the Sarfe- Khas had ceased to have any jurisdiction about deciding whether the property over which the Sarfe-Khas laid claim was the property of a private individual or was part of the personal estate of the erstwhile Nizam of Hyderabad. 16. It has been maintained before us on behalf of the plaintiff that the orders made by the Sarfe-Khas were admissible and relevant under Section 13 of the Evidence Act. These points were not gone into by the courts below and have still not been decided and we do not wish to express any opinion on them. The agreements to which reference has previously been made by us and which were not produced by the Corporation before the trial court would have also thrown a good deal of light on the points in controversy. In our judgment this is a fit case in which a remand is necessary to the trial court. The trial court shall decide the matter afresh only on issues relating to title and possession of the parties with the exception of such legal points which have already been disposed of by us. Both the parties will be at liberty to ask for such amendments in the pleadings may be strictly necessary for clarification on the question of title and possession. But no such pleas will be allowed to be introduced which may change the nature of the case. Fresh evidence can also be adduced confined only to these two matters by both sides. It will be for the trial court to get a complete investigation made with regard to the various matters already mentioned by us by a Commissioner if any of the parties make an application in that behalf. Both sides have expressed willingness to produce before the trial court all such documents which are relevant and which are in existence to enable the court to dispose of the question of title and possession of both the parties in a satisfactory manner.;