It was decided by the Supreme Court in a recent Judgment that a caretaker/ servant cannot acquire an interest in the property given by the owner, even if he has a long possession, as he holds the property on behalf of the owner as an agent.
Background:
The plaintiff MD Zahid filed the case against the respondent, who claimed to be the caretaker of the property which was assigned to him by Mirza Habibullah Khaleeli for his own use.
It was claimed by the plaintiff that his peaceful possession was threatened by defendants and their agents,
The defendant filed an application in the trial court under Order VII Rule 11 of the Civil Procedure Code to reject the plaintiff as the caretaker can’t have interest in the property irrespective of his long possession.
The trial Court dismissed the application, the decision was upheld by the High Court.
The Supreme Court set aside the decision of the High Court and Trial Court, which refused the application of the owner against the suit filed by the caretaker that he be not evicted from the property.
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Judgment:
The Bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and Abhay S observed that, “After we heard counsel for the parties and taking into consideration the material on record, in our considered view, the trial Court has committed a manifest error in appreciating the pleadings on record from the plaint filed at the instance of Respondent no.1 plaintiff who as a caretaker/servant can never acquire interest in the property irrespective of his long possession and the caretaker/ servant has to give possession forthwith on demand and so far as the plea of adverse possession is concerned as it lacks material particulars and the plaint does not discloses the cause of action for institution of the suit.”
The Court observed that many instances were found where the persons allowed to stay in the home dragged the owners in the suits.
It was observed by the Court it was not justified to allow the caretaker to continue to possess the property while not allowing the owner to have possession of his property.
The Court ordered the Respondent to hand over the possession of the property to the owner within three months.
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