JUDGEMENT
Subhro Kamal Mukherjee, J. -
(1.) This is an application under Article 227 of the Constitution of India against
judgment and order dated November 30, 2004 passed by the learned District
Judge, Cooch Behar in Miscellaneous Appeal No. 3 of 2004 reversing the Order
No. 9 dated February 26, 2004 passed by the learned Civil Judge (Junior
Division) at Tufanganj, District: Cooch Behar in Title Suit No.7 of 2003.
(2.) The plaintiff/opposite party No. 1 institutes this Title Suit No. 7 of 2003
in the Court of the learned Civil Judge (Junior Division) at Tufanganj, inter
alia, for declaration of the title of the plaintiff in respect of the suit property
and for a declaration that the registered deed of gift, executed on January 6,
2001 and registered on January 9, 2001, is fraudulent, false and no title was
transferred by the said document in favour of the defendant No. 1 and for
setting aside of the said deed. The plaintiff, also, prays for further declaration
that the defendant No. 1 had no saleable interest in the suit property and, as
such, transfers made by him in favour of the defendant Nos. 2 to 8 are all
illegal and void and not binding on the plaintiff. The plaintiff prays for perpetual
injunction to restrain the defendant Nos. 2 to 8 from entering into the land in
dispute on the basis of their sale deeds executed by the defendant No. 1 in their
favour.
(3.) The suit was instituted with the following allegations :
(a) The plaintiff was a doctor in military and his designation was lieutenant
colonel and during his service life he had to move from one place to another
place in India. He has retired from service in 1986. At present he is aged
about 74 years and he has been suffering from acute diabetes for the last
five years and has become almost blind and he is, also, suffering from various
other ailments due to his old age. He cannot read, but is able only to put his
signature. He recognised person only by voice.
(b) During his service career plaintiff purchased a plot of land measuring
16 decimal at village Bhanu Kumari in 1970 from Jadav Chandra Ghose
and Ram Jiban Ghose, both sons of late Jamini Mohan Ghose, by registered
deed of sale bearing No. 9864 dated September 24,1970 and got possession
of the same and the land is in his possession.
(c) The defendant No.1 is the younger brother of plaintiff and he, also,
purchased a piece of land adjacent to the land of plaintiff at Bhanu Kumari
and defendant No. 1 made negotiations both for himself and for the plaintiff.
Plaintiff had implicit faith upon defendant No. 1 and plaintiff, also, allowed
defendant No. 1 to look after his land. The plaintiff used to send money to
defendant No. 1 for payment of tax etc. of the land of the plaintiff. After
some time the defendant No. 1 sold his land and shifted to Cooch Behar
town where he runs a clinical laboratory and has, also, constructed a two-storied
building at Cooch Behar town.
(d) The plaintiff, after purchasing the land at village Bhanu Kumari
constructed a room therein where he inducted one Narayan Chandra Nath
as permissive possessor and the said Narayan Chandra Nath runs a medicine
shop. The plaintiff is in possession of the said land and the said room through
Narayan Chandra Nath.
(e) The defendant No.1 is a very cunning person and he had greedy eye over
the land of plaintiff at Bhanu Kumari. He hatched a plan to grab the said
land of plaintiff. The defendant No.l is very intimate with the Additional
Registrar of Tufanganj. The defendant No.l, with a view to grabing the
land of the plaintiff, in collusion with deed writer, Tarini Kanta Barman of
Tufanganj Sub-registration Office, made a conspiracy to make a deed of gift
of the land of plaintiff in his favour and asked the said deed writer to submit
a petition before the Additional Registrar of Tufanganj praying for presenting
a deed of gift to be registered on commission at the present address of
plaintiff. After complying with all official formalities of commission,
defendant No.l along with one person went to plaintiffs' present address
and introduced the other person as the Additional District Sub-Registrar,
Tufanganj to the plaintiff and falsely stated to plaintiff that a boundary
dispute was going on in respect of the land of plaintiff and he assured the
plaintiff that he would be able to solve the problem if a power-of-attorney be
executed in his favour. At the relevant time only the plaintiff and his
daughter-in-law, Gouri Nath, were present in the house of the plaintiff.
The plaintiff honestly believed in the statement of defendant No. 1 and put
his signature on some papers at the instance of defendant No.1, which were
handed over to plaintiff by defendant No.l. The said Gouri Nath, the
daughter-in-law of the plaintiff, also, put her signatures as directed by
defendant No.1. There was no deed writer at the time of putting signature
of plaintiff in the papers handed over by defendant No. 1. The deed writer
wrote nothing in presence of plaintiff on any paper. The said deed was not
read over to plaintiff. In fact, there was no occasion of plaintiff to make
prayer for commission for the purpose of executing and registering a deed.
The plaintiff did not pay any money for commission.
(f) The defendant No.l, thereafter, left for Cooch Behar after taking the
original deed from the plaintiff on the plea that original deed would be
required for solving boundary dispute.
(g) The defendant No.l, thereafter, did not inform anything regarding
boundary dispute of land to the plaintiff. Subsequently, wife of plaintiff
went to Bhanu Kumari in connection with marriage ceremony of the
daughter of their family friend, Sukumar Pal. At Bhanu Kumari plaintiffs
wife came to learn that defendant No.1 has manufactured a deed of gift, in
lieu of power-of-attorney, taking advantage of the blindness of plaintiff,
which the plaintiff executed at the instance of defendant No.l on commission
in his residence.
(h) Thus, defendant No.1 by practising fraud and misrepresentation has
managed to manufacture a deed of gift in collusion with deed writer and,
subsequently, sold out the land illegally to the other defendants.
(i) The plaintiff has no reason to make a deed of gift in favour of defendant
No.1 and plaintiff never expressed his willingness to make a deed of gift in
favour of defendant No.l and the recitals in the alleged deed of gift are all
false and fabricated and manufactured by defendant No.1 to serve his own
purpose. The alleged deed of gift is false, illegal and fraudulent one.
(j) The present suit is a suit for declaration, setting aside a deed of gift
relating to land of plaintiff, which is in his possession and injunction as
such plaintiff puts his own valuation of Rs.100/- and Court-fees is paid
accordingly.;