Civil Law – Partition Suit – Withdrawal Without Notice – Maintainability of Writ – Plaintiffs withdrew partition suit unconditionally and ex parte through Lok Adalat – Co-sharers (Defendant Nos. 20 and 21) not notified or served with application or purshish – Held: Withdrawal of partition suit without hearing all co-sharers, particularly those supporting the cla...
Service Law – Compassionate Appointment – Civil Death – Respondent No.2 sought appointment on compassionate grounds after his father, a municipal employee, went missing on 01.09.2012 – High Court directed appointment by treating 01.09.2012 as date of death – Held: Under Section 108 of the Indian Evidence Act, death is presumed only after a lapse of 7 years from the da...
Public Interest Litigation – Unauthorized Constructions – Right of Hearing – High Court, in a PIL, directed closure of 172 civil suits and removal of unauthorized constructions in Gurugram, citing violations of planning norms – Appellants (landowners/occupiers) were not parties to the writ petition – Supreme Court held: Directions issued without impleading affected pa...
Civil Law - Adverse Possession – Ownership Claim – Revenue Records Prevail Over Oral Testimony – Plaintiffs claimed title to agricultural land through adverse possession since 1957 – Trial Court accepted oral evidence and decreed ownership – First Appellate Court reversed, relying on consistent revenue entries showing plaintiffs and their predecessors as cultivating t...
Civil Law – Declaration Suit – Challenge to Consent Decree – Allegation of Fraud – Trial Court decree in favour of plaintiff declaring decree dated 29.04.1988 as fraudulent – Lower Appellate Court reversed the trial court’s decree – High Court upheld the appellate findings – Held: Plaintiff failed to plead and prove fraud as required under Order 6 Ru...
Service Law – Terminal Benefits – Right to Gratuity – Delay in Payment – Liability of Employer – Withholding of terminal dues of retired employees on ground that PACS had not remitted its share to DCCB – Petitioners, all senior citizens, rendered unblemished service and retired between 2009 and 2013 – Held: Right to gratuity is a statutory and enforceable ...
Family Law – Divorce – Ex Parte Decree – Special Marriage Act – Decree set aside – Marriage dissolved by Family Court based on unchallenged testimony of husband after wife failed to file written statement and remained absent – Held: Even in absence of contesting party, Family Court must assess evidence on merits and provide reasoned findings – Mere non-app...
Civil Law – Order XVIII CPC – Right to Begin – Plaintiffs filed memo stating they had no evidence at present and reserved right to lead rebuttal evidence – Trial Court accepted memo and called upon defendant to lead evidence – Held: Improper exercise of discretion – Under Order XVIII Rule 1 and 3 CPC, plaintiffs must lead evidence on all issues where burden lies...
Income Tax – Section 263 – Jurisdictional Overreach by ITAT – Tribunal set aside the Commissioner’s finding that donations under Section 11 must be made only to FCRA-registered bodies – However, Tribunal went beyond the grounds taken by Commissioner and sustained revision order on a new ground, i.e., absence of proof that donee trusts shared identical objects – ...
Customs Law – Duty Drawback – Interest on Delayed Payment – Entitlement from Date of Original Claim – Interpretation of Section 75A of Customs Act – Petitioner sought interest on delayed drawback for exports made in 1992–94 – Original claim filed on 12.12.1994 for conversion of DEEC shipping bills into drawback shipping bills – Despite protracted del...