STATE OF A.P. Vs. STAR BONE MILL & FERTILISER CO.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal has been preferred against the impugned judgment and order dated 22.3.2004, passed by the High Court of Judicature of Andhra Pradesh at Hyderabad in City Civil Court Appeal No. 72 of 1989, by way of which the Civil Suit filed by the respondent against the appellants, claiming title over the suit land in dispute, has been upheld.

(2.) The facts and circumstances giving rise to this appeal are:

(3.) Shri Amarendra Sharan, learned senior counsel appearing on behalf of the appellants, has submitted that the courts below misdirected themselves and did not determine the issue as regards, whether the vendor of the respondent/plaintiff had any title over the suit property. The same is necessary to determine the validity of the sale deed in favour of the respondent/plaintiff. The issue before the trial court was not whether the Government was the owner of the said land or not. No such issue framed either. Moreover, such an issue could not be framed in view of the admission made by the respondent/plaintiff itself, as it had been paying rent regularly to the Government, and the same was admitted by it, by way of filing an application before the Government stating, that M/s. A. Allauddin & Sons had cheated it by executing a sale deed in its favour, without any authority/title. It thus, requested the Government to execute a lease deed/rent deed in its favour. It was not its case, that in its earlier two writ petitions filed by it, it had acquired title over the land validly, or that M/s. A. Allauddin & Sons etc., had any title over the said suit land. The lease deed executed by the Government in favour of M/s. A. Allauddin & Sons, dated 21.5.1943 must be considered in light of the provisions of Section 90 of the Evidence Act, 1872 (hereinafter referred to as the 'Evidence Act'), and not the sale deed dated 11.11.1959, as the suit was filed in 1974, just after a period of 15 years of sale, and not 30 years. The courts below have erred in applying the provisions of Section 90 of the Evidence Act. The findings of fact recorded by the courts below are perverse, being based on no evidence and have been recorded by a misapplication of the law. Thus, the appeal deserves to be allowed.