The Supreme Court has upheld the Patna High Court’s order to dismiss a ‘Title’ suit filed 54 years ago.
The bench of Justices A.M. Khanwilkar and Sanjiv Khanna, taking into account the evidence on record, found that the plaintiffs were not the owners of the property on the day they filed the present suit for title and possession on August 5, 1967. It set aside the decisions of the first appellate court and upheld the dismissal of the trial by the trial court.
The case was filed by Banaras Sah against Dr. Krishnakant Prasad in the trial court on August 5, 1967. In the petition filed against Dr. Krishnakant Prasad by Banaras Sah, the trial court, while delivering the verdict in 1986, dismissed the case. Banaras Sah filed an appeal against this decision. The decision on this appeal came in favour of Banaras Sah on 7 December 1988.
Now this decision, which came on the appeal of the District court, was challenged in the Patna High Court by the heir of Krishnakant Prasad. Hearing this matter, the Single Bench of the Patna High Court, while delivering the judgment on 25 May 1989, dismissed the appeal of Krishnakant Prasad. After this the matter reached the Supreme. In which the Supreme Court said that it was not right to dismiss the appeal of the High Court as there was a serious dispute related to the title of the land. The Supreme Court in its order dated 23 February 2000 asked the High Court for a fresh consideration.On March 20, 2009, the High Court, after considering the matter afresh dismissed the second appeal.
The case again reached the Supreme Court, which gave its final verdict on September 7.
The bench set aside the Patna High Court order and first appellate court order that had decreed the suit to find that the judgment of the trial court dismissing the suit is correct.
According to the National Judicial Data Grid, more than one lakh cases are pending in the three-tier justice dispensation system for over 30 years. Another 4.85 lakh cases are pending for a period ranging between 20-30 years