Appeal over executability of a compromise decree clause requiring judgment-debtors to execute sale deeds of mortgaged properties to decree-holders. Court held the compromise related to the suit and that execution of a conveyance, not mere agreement to convey, was its consideration, upholding direction to execute sale deed in execution.
This page shows the compact analysis of this judgement. The full analysis — procedural history, issue-by-issue holdings with ratio and obiter, advocates, and paragraph-level evidence for every claim — is being added to the record in batches and will appear here when this judgement has been through it.
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46 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1963] SUPP.
1962
1962 approached any superior officer in the Police Depart- Maulud Ahmad ment and that the appellant had manipulated the
v. records on the dictation of such an officer. This is Stale of U. P. a pure surmise based upon an observation made by Sub~a Rao, J. the learned Judge of the High Court in the judgment. . There is nothing improbable in Chauhan or some other person interested in him directly approaching the appellant and the appellant acting in the manner he did for consideration or otherwise. If a police officer manipulates the record such as police diary etc., it will be the end of honest criminal investigation in our country. Such offences shall receive deterrent punishment. The punishment awarded errs more on the side of leniency than otherwise.
For the aforesaid reasons we hold that the decision of the High Court is correct. The appeal fails and is dismissed.
Appeal dismissed.
HAJI T. J. ABDUL SHAKOOR AND OTHERS 1962
November, 14,
v.
BIJAY KUMAR KAPUR AND OTHERS
(S. J. IMAM, K. SUBBA RAO, N. RAJAGOPALA AYYANGAR and J. R. M~DHOLKAR, JJ.)
Compromise Decree--Oanstructinn ~·t)ornpromise providing sale of mart.gaged properties-Executi(J,, 11•·oceedings-Main- tainability-Oode of Civil Procedure, li!Uc (Act 5 of 1908), 0. 23, r.3
A suit instituted by the respondents for the recovery of money due under a simple mortgage from the appellants was compromised by the parties under a memo dated September 30, 1955, and the court passed a decree as per the terms of the compromise. By cl. I of the memo the defendants agreed to a
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2 s.c.R. SUPREME COURT REPORTS 47
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decree being passed as prayed for in the suit, while cl. 2 recited: "That the mortgaged properties are hereby sold f0 r the amount of the decree in full satisfaction thereof. The defendants will execute a regular sale and within ten days from this date." The appellants did not comply with the terms of cl. 2 and on October 31, 1955, the respondents made an application before the court praying that the appellants might be directed to execute a sale. deed as per the terms of the compromise. The appellants pleaded that the relief sought by the respondents could not be had in execution proceedings but only by a separate suit, on the grounds, inter alia, that the same did not relate to the suit within 0. 23, r. 3, of the Code of. Civil Procedure, and that, in any case, on a proper construction of the compromise the consideration therefore was not the actual execution of the conveyance by the judgment debtor but me1cly the agreement to execute such a conveyance,
1962
Hi T. J. Abdul Shakor
Held: (l) that the terms of the compromise related to the suit .inasmuch as the property which was to be conveyed consisted entirely of the property included in the mortgage.
(2) that on the true construction of the compromise, though els. 2 to 6 might constitute an integrated scheme for adjusting the rights of parties, a mere agreement to convey contained in cl. 2 by itself did not amount to a satisfaction of the decree and that the consideration for the compromise was the execution of a conveyance.
CrvIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION : Civil Appeal No. 176of1960.
Appeal from the judgment and decree dated June 2, 1958, of the Mysore High Court in R. A. No. 268 of 1957.
S. K. Javali, K. P. Bhat and B. R. L. Iyengar, for the appellants.
S. K. Venkataranga lyengFJr and R. Gopala· krishnan, for the respondents.
A:YYANOAR, J.-On March 27, 1954, the three Kapurs-who are the respondents before us-filed original Suit No. 29 of 1954 before the District
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.,.
48 SUPREME COURTREPORTS[I963] SUPP.
1962 lloji T. J .• 1bdul ~hakoor v. OiJa.1J1:um.z.r Kupar
A)'.)'angar, J.
Judge, Bangalore, against the 3 appellants who are brothers, for the recovery of over Rs. 50,000/- and subsequent interest and costs due on a simple mortgage. Before the suit came on for trial the parties filed a memo of compromise dated September 30, 1955, and they prayed that the suit may be decreed in terms thereof. The Court accepted the application and passed a decree as prayed for, the order reading :
"It is ordered and decreed that the plaintiff's suit be and the same is hereby decreed as per terms of the compromise, the copy of which is hereunto annexed".
The terms of the Razinama ran as follows :
2 S.C.R. SUPREME COURT REPORTS 49
,;
the decree, the decree·holders bind them· selves to reconvey the properties which are sold to them under this rajinama at their cost provided it is distinctly agreed that time is essence of the contract and provided also that if the judgment-debtors default in paying the rents as aforesaid on or before the 15th of any month they will lose the conc!"ssion hereby offered to them' of having reconvcyance of the propertie(in one years' time.
1962
Hoji T. J. AU.I Sluikoor y,
BljaiKwnarE ...
A7Jcm1ar, I 1
Broadly stated, the question raised in this appeal relates to the executability of cl. 2 of this compromise decree but before examining this contention it is necessary to state a few facts. It would be noticed that under the second sentence of cl. 2 the appellants had to execute a regular sale-deed within ten days from September 30, 1955. They, however, did not do so and thereupon the respondents filed, on October 31, 1955, Interlocutory application No. 6 of 1955 (later numbered as Execution Application No. 83 of 1956) for directing the appellants to execute the sale-deed and they annexed to their application a draft sale-deed in which els. 3 to 6 of the razinama were recited. Apparently there were disputes between the parties each accusing the other that it had not conformed to its undertaking under the compromise, but with these we are not now
50 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1963] SUPP.
1962
Hqji T. J. A.bdul Shakoor v. IJijai Kumar Kapoor i(Jyangar., J.
concerned. Thereafter the appellants filed an applica· tion in the suit on March 16, 1956, praying that a sale-deed might be executed in favour of a third party to the proceedings who had agreed to purchase the property on terms of paying the full decree-amount as provided for by cl. 4 of the Razinama. This application was opposed by the respondents and there were further applications of a similar type which it is not necessary to detail except to point out that they all proceeded on the basis that the compromise-decree was capable of execution with· out any necessity for a further suit. The appellants did not succeed in these applications. It is sufficient if hereafter attention were confined to the application by the respondents-E. A. 83 of 1956 by which they sought to get the appellants· to execute a sale-deed in their favour in accordance with the opening sentence of cl. 2 of the compromise. The appellants opposed this application on the technical ground that the relief sought could not be had in execution but only by a separate suit in as much as the same did not "relate to the suit" within 0. XXIII, r. 3, Code of Civil Procedure, to whose terms we shall refer presently. This objection was upheld by the learned District Judge of Bangalore and the prayer of the respondents for directing the appellants to execute a sale-deed in their favour was rejected. This.order has been reversed bv the learned Judges of the High Court on appeal by the respondents and it is the correctness of this judgment that is canvassed in this appeal which comes before us on a certificate of fit· ness granted by the High Court under Art. 133 (l)(a) of the CoDstitution.
It would be seen from this narration that the point involved in the appeal is very narrow and turns on the question whether the High Court was justified in directing the appellants to execute a sale-deed conveying the suit properties to the respondents in the proceedings in execution of the decree in original
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2 S.C.R. SUPREME COURT REPORTS 51
suit No. 29 of .1954 or whether the respondents could obtain that relief only in an independant suit instituted for that purpose. It is common ground that the decree embodied the entire razinama including all its terms. The relevant statutory provision for the passing of decrees by compromise is 0. XXIII, r. 3, Code of Civil Procedure, which runs :
1912 H•ji T. J. Ahtlrl SA<A:oor •• Bijai Jrumor lra[116 ..(1 .... , ... 1.
"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, the 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."
We do not, having regard to the facts of this case, consider it necessary to examine the position whether, when a decree has been passed embodying all the terms as part of the decree, an objection as to the executability of any particular term could be raised in execution proceedings, but shall proceed on the basis that it could be. There is no dispute that the agreement was lawful and an executable decree could be passed "so far as it related tq the suit". Though in the courts below most of the argument turned on the import of the expression "so far as it relates to the suit" occuring in r. 3, learned Counsel for the appellants did not stress that contention before us, but rather on the construction of the several clauses of the compromise and their inter-relation to which we shall advert presently. Wemight, however, point out that the learned Judges were right in the view they took that the terms of the compromise "related" to the suit. The property which was to be conveyed consisted entirely of property included in the mortgage and which wa8. therefore liable to be sold in execution of the mortgage decree which was
52 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1963]SUPP.
1962
Haji T.J. A6tlul Sh,koor v. Bijai Kumar Kapur A.)yangar, J.
the relief sought in the plaint. The sale price for the conveyance under the Razinama was the sum for the recovery of which the suit was laid. There was therefore nothing which was outside the scope of the suit. Besides all this, the conveyance was the consideration for the compromise. In these circumstances, it is not a matter for surprise that learned Counsel for the appellants laid little emphasis on the point which persuaded the learned District Judge to dismiss the respondents' application.
Learned Counsel for the appellants however raised before us two contentions in the alternative. His first and primary contention was that on a proper construction of the compromise, the consideration therefor was not the actual execution of the conveyance by the judgment-debtor to the decree-holder but metely the agreement to execute such a conveyance. He pointed out that under cl. I of the compromise the defendants had agreed to a decree being passed as prayed for, which meant that a mortgage decree drawn up in the usual form had to be passed. That decree, it was submitted, was under the compromise agreed to be treated as satisfied and full satisfaction to be recorded immediately on the filing of the compromise, and he suggested that the opening words in cl. 2 "The mortgaged properties are hereby sold for the amount of the decree in full satisfaction thereof" was a reference to the agreement to execute the conveyance. There were other clauses in the com· promise-els. 3 to 6-but these, he submitted, related to the inter se rights between the parties. The contention was that these other clauses of the raiinama including the second limb of cl. 2 were intended to be enforced or implemented not by way of execution of the decree in this suit but that the decree to be passed under cl. 1 was to be treated as fully satisfied on the filing into court of the memo of compromise and the same being recorded by the court with the result that thereafter no portion of the
53
2 S.C.R. SUPREME COURT REPORTS
decree remained alive. We find ourselves wholly unable to accept ·this argument. No doubt, under cl. I there was to be a simple mortgage decree as prayed for in the suit, but it would, however, not be a proper construction of the 1st sentence of cl. 2 to say that the mere agreement to convey and not an actual conveyance was intended to operate as a satisfaction of the decree l?assed or to be passed under cl. 1. Learned Counsel 1s, no doubt, right in his submission that the sale of the property to the decree-holders under cl. 2 was not to be absolute in the sense of conferring a right to an unconditional conveyance since the title to be obtained under the sale was subject to the conditions contained in els. 3 to 6 and particularly cl. 4 under which it was stipulated that the title to the property might, on the happening of certain contingencies, be divested from decree-holders to whom it had been conveyed under cl. 2. In that sense els. 2 to 6 might constitute an integrated scheme for adjusting the rights of parties but on that account it would not be open to the construction that the mere agreement to convey contained ·in cl. 2 (subject to the conditions stipulated in els. 3 to 6) by itself amounted to a satisfaction of the decree.
1962
Haji T. J. Abihd Shakoor v. Bijai Kumar Kaput .4)'.J'angar, J.
The other submission of learned Counsel was that the learned Judges should not have directed the execution of a conveyance in favour of the respondents without attaching to it the conditions laid down in els. 3 to 6 and also without an examii:tation of the question whether the appellants were entitled to enforce the reconveyance provided by those clauses. On this matter the foamed Judges expressed themselves thus:
"The decree-holder is entitled to execute the decree in respect of clause 2 of the compromise. No opinion is expressed as to the executability
54 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1963] SUPP.
1962
of the other clauses of the compromise as that question has not been raised before us."
H~i T. J. AU•I question has not been raised before us." SllM•or BU•.1 x...., v. lrtlf*• The fact, therefore, was that this point about either the inter-relation between cl. 2 on the one hand and els. 3 A,1an101, I. to 6 on the other or the contention of the appellants that they were entitled to relief under els. 3 to 6 was not raised before the High Court and the matter was therefore left open. The appellants can in the circumstances obviously have no cause for complaint that the High Court did not deal with it. The question as to whether the appellants are entitled to relief under els. 3 to 6 or whether they had lost their right to do so, is one which would have to be investigated on facts and cannot therefore be urged before us. We do not, therefore, propose to pronounce upon it either. It would, of course, be open to the appellants to agitate their rights in appropriate proceedings if they are so advised. No other point has been urged before us.
The appeal fails and is dismissed with costs.
Appeal dismissed.
2 issues framed by the court
Whether the terms of a compromise decree providing for sale of mortgaged properties 'relate to the suit' within Order XXIII Rule 3 CPC and are enforceable in execution.
Whether on true construction of the compromise the consideration was actual execution of the conveyance rather than a mere agreement to convey.
1 provisions across 1 enactments
Haji T. J. Abdul Shakoor
Haji T. J. Abdul Shakoor (other appellants)
Bijay Kumar Kapur
Bijay Kumar Kapur (other respondents)
S. J. Imam
K. Subba Rao
N. Rajagopala Ayyangar
J. R. Mudholkar
As recorded by the court registry
Judgements on the same questions, provisions and authorities, from every court
