Agarwala, J. - (1.) This is an appeal against an order recording a compromise. The plaintiff-respondents filed a suit for the recovery of a sum of Rs. 9,600/- from the defendant-appellant, the Union of India. The sum claimed was in respect of loss incurred for nondelivery of goods delivered to the East Indian Railway. There was correspondence between the parties and during the course of this the Chief Commercial Manager of the E. I. R. wrote to the plaintiffs a letter offering a sum of Rs. 9,441/2/6 in full satisfaction of the plaintiffs' claim. This offer was accepted by the plaintiffs and they applied to the Court to record it. The defendant, however, objected to the adjustment being recorded on the ground that after it had made the offer it discovered that it had been procured by the plaintiffs on the basis of a forged beejuk and that, therefore, it was not binding on them. The defendants wanted to produce oral evidence to substantiate its plea of fraud but the lower court was of opinion that this question could not be gone into in those proceedings because the agreement being lawful upon the face of it, it had to be recorded irrespective of whether it could be established that it had been obtained by undue influence, fraud, coercion or misrepresentation. The agreement was consequently recorded and the claim to recover a sum of Rs. 9,441/2/6 was decreed against the defendant.
(2.) Against the order recording the compromise the defendant has come up in appeal to this court and it is urged on its behalf that the agreement having been obtained by fraud was not an adjustment at all and not binding upon the defendant and the court had no jurisdiction to re-cord it. It is urged that the court was bound to go into the question whether the adjustment was obtained by fraud or not.
(3.) Order 23, Rule 3, Civil P. C., under which an adjustment of a suit is recorded runs as follows: "Where it is proved to the satisfaction of the court that a suit has been adjusted wholly or in part by any lawful agreement or compromise, or where the defendant satisfies the plaintiff in respect of the whole or any part of the subject-matter of the suit, court shall order such agreement, compromise or satisfaction to be recorded, and shall pass a decree in accordance therewith so far as it relates to the suit." The phrase "lawful agreement or compromise" in the aforesaid rule has been interpreted in a long series of decisions. In Qadri Jahan Begam v. Fazal Ahmad, AIR 1928 All 494 (A) Sulaiman and Kendall, JJ., observed : "We think that the word 'lawful' in Order 23 Rule 3 refers to agreements which in their very terms or nature are not 'unlawful' and may therefore include agreements which are voidable at the option of one of the parties thereto, because they having been brought about by undue influence, coercion or fraud.";