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Supreme Court of India

DY. GENERAL MANAGER, REDESIGNATED AS DY. DIRECTOR, !SB ETC.versusSUDARSHAN KUMAR AND ORS. ETC.

Citation
1996 INSC 474
Decided
2 April 1996
Disposal
Case Partly allowed

Holding

The Supreme Court held that the renewal cannot be granted as the compassionate grounds were misused and the High Court erred in allowing the withdrawal of the writ petition; the appeal is allowed.

Summary

The Delhi government had granted a shop licence on compassionate grounds to the widow of a freedom fighter in 1992. The respondent applied for renewal in 1994, but the renewal application, affidavit and vakalatnama were not signed by her, indicating forgery. A show‑cause notice was issued for eviction and the respondent filed a writ petition, which the High Court allowed to be withdrawn with liberty to file a fresh petition. The Supreme Court examined whether the renewal could be granted and whether the High Court erred in permitting the withdrawal. Finding that the compassionate grounds were abused and the documents were forged, the Court held the High Court’s order was erroneous and allowed the appeal, dismissing the respondent’s claim for renewal and directing action against the notary who attested false affidavits.

Issues considered

  • Whether the respondent is entitled to renewal of the leave and licence on compassionate grounds when the renewal application and supporting affidavits were unsigned and forged.
  • Whether the High Court was justified in granting liberty to withdraw the writ petition and to file a fresh petition on the same cause of action.
  • Whether the notary who attested the forged affidavits can be prosecuted for false attestation.

Subjects

leave and licencecompassionate groundsforgerynotarywithdrawal of writ petitionrenewal of licencemisuse of concessionspecial leave petitionDelhi High Court

Judgment

A          DY. GENERAL MANAGER, REDESIGNATED AS DY.
                       DIRECTOR, !SB ETC.
                              v.
                 SUDARSHAN KUMAR AND ORS. ETC.

                                    APRIL 2, 1996
B
                IK. RAMASWAMY AND G.B. PATTANAIK, JJ.J

          Leave and Licence :

C          Grant of licence on compassionate grounds-Misuse of-Widow of
    freedom fighter granted licence of shop-Application for renewal of
    licence-Show cause notice issued to licensee for ejectn1ent-W!it petition
    filed challenging the notice-Affidavit filed not signed by writ petitioner licen-
    see-Sig11ature of petitioner obtained by High Cowt 1101 consistent with the
    sig11atures on Vakalatnama and ajfidavit-Pennission for withdrawal of writ
D   petition with liberty to file fresh petition granted-Held, in view of the facts
    that renewal application was not signed by the licensee, nor were the affidavit
    a1~d Vakalatnania signed hy her, it is obvious that she had taken the licence
    and assigned the sa111e to sonieone else who conunitted forge1y and the
    compassionate grounds and the libe1ties given are being misused-High Coun
E   not light in pennitting the petitioner to withdraw the petition and to file
    another lVrit petition on sanie cause of action.

          Notmy:

          Affidavit.I-Attestation of-Notmy issuing false attestatimr-Re[;isuy
F   directed lo iS.\'llC notfr·e lo 1Vota1y to sho1v cause as lo why he should not be
    prosecuted and punished for attesting false affidavit and why l1is licence
    should 1101 be cancelled and he should 1101 be prosecuted j(Jr giving false
    ce1tificate . .

        CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION: Civil Appeal No. 7084 of
G   1996@ Special Leave Petition (C) No. 6122 of 1995 Etc.

         From the Judgment and Order dated 15.11.94 of the Delhi High
    Court in C.W. No. 2483 of 1994.                                                     t

         San.iay Poddar, D.K. Malhotra, Ajay K. Jain, Pramod Dayal, V.B.
    Saharaya and D. Goburdhan for the appearing parties.
                                    1094
                DY. GENERAL MANAGER v. S. KUMAR!                         1095

      The following Order of the Court was delivered :                           A
      We have heard learned counsel on both sides.

      This case is a n1isuse of the compassionate ground" on which leave
and licence is sought to be granted to the widows of the freedom lighter.
The appellant had granted to the first respondent leave and licence on May B
15, 1992 the shop (Sales Counter) bearing No. 'H' at Interstate Bus
Terminal at a concessional rate of 51fr; of the licence fee. It is not necessary
to go into the allegation regarding her encroachment and misuse of the
shop allotted in the name of the respondent. An application was filed on
March 21, 1994 for renewal of the leave and licence, which is now found C
to be not signed by the respondent. A show cause notice was issued on
6.5.1994 to the respondent asking her to hand over vacant ·possession of
the counter on 6.6.1994.

      Awrit petition No. 2483/94 was filed in the High Court of Delhi on
23.5.1994 for restraining the appellant from ejecting her and issue a direc- D
tion to renew her leave and licence. The affidavit filed by the respondent
in the High Court was not even signed by her. When the notice was issued
to the appellants (herein), the appellants filed a counter-affidavit on Oc-
tober 24, 1994 informing the High Court of Delhi of the forgery committed
in the pleadings and also her application of renewal. The Court has called E
upon the respondent to appear before the Court on 2.11.1994 but she did
not appear. Ultimately, the respondent appeared on November 15, 1994.
The Court ·has taken her signatures in the open Court and compared with
the signatures on the Yakalatnama and -affidavits and found to be not
consistent with her admitted signatures. At that time, the respondent had
sought permission for withdrawal of the writ petition with the liberty to lilc F
a fresh petition on the same cause of action. Accordingly, liberty was
granted vide order dated November 15, 1994. Thus this appeal by special
leave. We arc informed that posses~ion of the Koasko was taken.

       The respondent also filed a connected appeal seeking for renewal of
the licence. The question, therefore, that emerges is : whether the respon-      G
dent is entitled to the renewal of the leave and licence and whether liberty
to withdraw the W..it petition was appropriately granted by the High Court?
In the re_joinder filed in this Court it is admitted position that she did not
sign the rejoinder also. Somebody seems to have signed it on her behalf
and attested by a Notary. This is the third case where the Court has come        H
    1096                  SUPREME COURT REPORTS                   [1990] 3 S.C.R.

A across that the Notaries have been misusing the liberty given to them by
    i5'uing such false attestations and indiscriminately attesting the affidavits
    to be tiled by some party who have not been properly identified. We have
    seen original rejoinder affidavit filed in the Court. They have approached
    one Notary who has initially attested it and later he had cancelled it without
    even verifying the valid ground on which the earlier attestation came to be
B
    cancelled, same was again attested by one Sudersh<m Kumar on November
    1, 1994. In view of the admitted position that she herself had not signed
    and as someone who had signed it, it would obvious that the person who
    had signed before him was not the respondent nor even the person was
    known to the Notary. None identified her before the Notary, yet he attested
c   the affidavit. This would show that some Notaries are absolutely misusing
    the licence granted to them without any proper verification of the persons
    who has signed the document and are attesting false affidavits of imper-
    sonators.

           In view of the admitted fact that her renewal application was not
D   signed by her, the affidavit, the Vakalatnama were also not signed by her,
    it \vould be obvious that she had taken the licence and assigned to someone
    who had committed forgery. When we have asked Shri Goburdhan, learned
    counsel for her, the name of the real person who .was actually running the
    shop, he has stated that the party does not divulge the person who is
E   running the shop.

         Under: these circumstances, it is clear that the compassionate
  grounds and the liberties given are being abused by these persons. There-
  fore, the High Court was not right in giving liberty to the respondent herein
  to withdraw the writ petition and to file another writ petition on the same
F cause of action. Hence CA No. 7084/96 (@ SLP (C) No. 6122195) is
  allowed and the appeal by Sudershan Kumari C.A. No. 7085/96 (@ SLP
  (C) No. 9464/95) is dismissed with costs. Ilcgistry is directed to issue a
  notice to the Notary to show cause as to Sudarshan Kumar why he should
  not be prosecuted and punished for attesting false affidavit of imper-
G sonators and why his licence should not be cancelled and he should not be
  prosecuted for giving such false certificates.
                                                                                     t
           Post this mailer immediately after service of notice on the Notary.

    R.P.                                        Appeal No. 7084/96 allowed and
H                                                Appeal No. 7085/96 dismissed.


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