Holding

A transaction induced by fraudulent misrepresentation as to the character of the document is void, and a suit to set it aside is barred under Section 49 of the U.P. Consolidation of Holdings Act, 1953; the remedy lies with the consolidation authorities.

Summary

The plaintiff, an illiterate woman, was deceived by defendants who made her sign two deeds—one a genuine gift deed to her daughter and the other a fraudulent sale deed to the defendants—by misrepresenting the character of the documents. She later discovered the fraud and filed a suit to cancel the sale deed, while consolidation proceedings under the U.P. Consolidation of Holdings Act, 1953 were pending. The Supreme Court held that fraud as to the character of a document renders the transaction void, not merely voidable, and therefore the suit is barred by Section 49 of the Act, which reserves such disputes for the consolidation authorities. Consequently, the appeal by the plaintiff was dismissed and the remedy lies with the consolidation proceedings.

Issues considered

Whether a deed obtained through fraudulent misrepresentation as to its character is void or voidable.
Whether a suit for cancellation of a void transaction is barred by Section 49 of the U.P. Consolidation of Holdings Act, 1953 when consolidation proceedings are pending.
Whether the appropriate remedy lies with the consolidation authorities rather than a civil court.

Legislation cited

U.P. Consolidation of Holdings Act, 1953s. 49

Subjects

fraudulent misrepresentationvoid transactionvoidable contractSection 49consolidation of holdingsproperty lawdeedcivil procedure

Judgment

SMT. DULARIA DEVI
v.
A
JANARDAN SINGH & ORS.

MARCH 2, 1990

[LALIT MOHAN SHARMA AND T. KOCHU THOMMEN, JJ.l B

U.P. Consolidation of Holdings Act, 1953: S. 49-Void sale
._. deed-Suit for cancellarion of-Whether barred when consolidation
proceedings are pending.

Section 49 of the U.P. Consolidation of Holdings Act, 1953 puts a
bar on the civil and revenue courts in respect of disputes in regard to c
which proceedings could or ought to have been taken under the Act.

The plaintiff-appellant, an illiterate lady, wanted to make a gift of
her properties in favour of her daughter. Defendant Nos. 3 and 4, who
nndertook to make arrangements to execute and register the necessary D
deed, however, practised a fraud on her. They made her put her thumb
impression on two documents which she bad been told and she honestly
believed were the gift deed in favour of her daughter. She bad in fact
executed two deeds, one of which was a gift in favour of her daughter
and the other a sale deed in favour of the defendants. Later when she
'came to know of the facts, she filed a suit for cancellation of the sale E
deed. Consolidation proceedings were then pending in respect of the

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property in question.

The suit was decreed by the trial court and that decree was
confmned in appeal by the First Appellate Court. The High Court,
however, found that the plaintiff was totally deceived as to the cbarac- p
- '·r ter of the document which she bad executed and the document was,
therefore, void and of no effect whatsoever. Accordingly, it held that
' the suit was barred by reason of s. 49 of the Act.
...,
.\ In the appeal by special leave it was contended for the appellant
' that since it was a case of the document having been vitiated by fraud, G
the tl"dnsaction was voidable but not void and, therefore, the bar of s. 49
oftbe Act was not attracted.

Dismissing the appeal, the Court,

HELD: 1.1 A voidable document is one which remains in force H

799
800 SUPREME COURT REPORTS I 1990] 1 S.C.R.
A until set aside and such a document can be set aside only hy a competent
civil court. A suit for that purpose would, therefore, be maintainable. A ~
claim that a transaction is void is, however, a matter which can be
adjudicate~ upon by the consolidation authorities. [802E-Fl

Gorakh Nath Dube v. Hari Narain Singh & Ors., [1974] l SCR
B 339, referred to.

1.2 In the instant case, the plaintiff-appellant was totally igno-
rant of the mischief played upon her. She honestly believed that the
instrument which she executed and got registered was a gift deed in
favour of her daughter. She believed that the thumb impressions taken
from her were in respect of that single document. She did not know that
C she bad executed two documents, one of which alone was the gift deed,
but the other was a sale of the property in favour of the defendants.
This was, therefore, a case of fraudulent misrepresentation as to the
character of the document executed by her and not merely as to its
contents or as to its legal effect. The plaintiff-appellant never intended
O to sign what she did sign. She never intended to enter into the contract
to which she unknowingly became a party. Her mind did not accom-
pany her thumb impressions. ft was thus a totally void transaction. [804C-E]

Ningawwa v. Byrappa & Ors., [1968] 2 SCR 797, applied.

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E No suit was, therefore, maintainable by reason of the bar con-
tained in s. 49 of the Act. l804EJ

2. The remedy of the plaintiff lies in the proceedings pending
before the consolidation authorities and it is open to the parties to
approach them for appropriate relief. [804Fl
F
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION: Civil Appeal No. 2998
of 1980.

From the Judgment and Order dated 17.11.1980 of the Allaha-
bad High Court in S.A. No. 2954 of 1979.
G
M.S. Gujral and Mohan Pandey for the Appellant.

Satish Chandra, Praveen Swamp and Pramod Swamp for the
Respondent.

H The Judgment of the Court was delivered by
•

SMT. DULARIA v.JANARDAN ITHOMMEN, J.J 801

THOMMEN, J. This appeal by special leave arises from the A
'y judgment of the Allahabad High Court in Second Appeal No. 2954, of
1979 whereby the learned Judges of the High Court, allowing the
defendants' ~ppeal set aside the decrees of the courts below. The High
Court held that the suit was barred by reason of Section 49 ofthe.U.P.
Consolidation of Holdings Act, 1953 (hereinafter referred to as 'the
Act'). Hence the present appeal by the plaintiff. B

The plaintiff is an illiterate person. Her daughter Rameshwari
Devi is the wife of the 6th defendant, Yogendra Prasad Singh. Arjun
Singh and Janardan Singh, defendant Nos. 3 and 4, are the brothers of
the 6th defendant. Defendants Nos. 3 and 4 had gained the confidence
of the plaintiff and she confided in them her desire to make a gift of her
entire properties in favour of her daughter. Defendant Nos. 3 and 4 c
readily agreed to make arrangements to execute and register the
_.., necessary deed. On 18.9.1971, these defe9dants took the plaintiff to
the Office of the Sub-Registrar. The plaintiff paid the amount needed
for expenses. The defendants purchased stamp papers in the name of
the plaintiff. On two deeds, which had been prepared at the instance of D
the defendants, the plaintiff was made to put her thumb impressions.
Being an illiterate person, she could not read the contents of the
documents or understand their character. She had been told, and she
~ honestly believed, that she was executing a gift deed in favour of her
daughter, as desired by her, in respect of her properties. She had in
fact executed two deeds, one of which was a gift in favour of her E

-- daughter and the other a sale deed in favour of all the defendants. The
consideration for the sale shown in the document was Rs.14,000. This
was a clear case of fraud practised upon her by the defendants. The
defendants and the Sub-Registrar as well as the document-writer had
. ·r '
all conspired together to perpetrate the fraud. The plaintiff did not
know that she had executed a sale deed ig,.favour of the defendants in F
respect of her property until 25th June, 1974 when she found
defendant Nos. 3 and 4 interfering with her possession of the property.
They told her that she had executed a sale deed in their favour. It was
only on 2nd July, 1974 that she came to know of the full facts. Accord-
ingly, she filed a suit for cancellation of the sale deed. The suit was
decreed by the trial court and that decree was confirmed in appeal by G
the first appellate court. Setting aside the decree in the defendant's
_.,,;.__ second appeal, the High Court held that the plaintiff was totally
- "'-u~ceived as to the character of the document which she executed and
the document was, therefore, void and of no effect whatsoever.
Accordingly the suit was barred under section 49 of the Act under
which consolidation proceedings had been pending at the time of the H
802 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [ 1990] 1 S.C.R.

institution of the suit in respect of the property in question.
A
' The facts are not in dispute. It is not disputed that the documents
in question came to be executed in the manner alleged by-the plaintiff.
The appellant, however, contends that since it was a case of the docu-
ment having been vitiated by fraud, the transaction was viodable, but
.. B not void, and, therefore, the suit to set aside the sale was rightly
instituted by her and the bar of section 49 was not attracted. The
appellant contends that the suit is perfectly maintainable and the High
Court was wrong in holding to the contrary.

Mr. Satish Chandra, appearing for the respondents, rightly, in
our view, submits that two principles enunciated by this Court in
c Gorakh Nath Dube v. Hari Narain Singh & Ors., [1974] 1SCR339 and
Ningawwa v. Byrappa & 3 Ors., [1968] 2 SCR 797 squarely apply to
the facts of this case and the document in question evidenced a void
transaction, and not a mere voidable transaction, and no suit was,
therefore, maintainable in view of the bar contained in section 49 of
D the Act.

In Gorakh Nath Dube, (supra), this Court held that the object of
the relevant provision of the Act was to remove from the jnrisdiction
of any civil court or revenue court all disputes which could be decided
by the competent authority under the Act during the consolidation
E proceedings. Questions relating to the validity of a sale deed or a gift
deed and the like had to be examined in proceedings before the statu-
tory authorities. The Court, however, drew a distinction between void
and voidable documents and said a voidable document was one which
.
remained in force until set aside, and such a document could be set
.lifl
aside only by a competent civil court, and a suit for that purpose
F would, therefore, be maintainable. On the other hand, a claim that a

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"(
transaction was void was a matter which could be adjudicated upon by
the consolidation courts. This is what this Court stated:

"We think that a distinction can be made between cases r~

where a document is wholly or partially invalid so that it
G can be disregarded by any court or authority and one where
it has to be actually set aside before it can"cease to have
legal effect. An alienation made in excess of power to
transfer would be, to the extent of the excess of power,. ,,/"'--
invalid. An adjudication on the effect of such a purported
alienation would be necessarily implied in the qecision of a
H dispute involving conflicting claims to rights·or interests in ......
'
SMT. DULARIA v.JANARDAN [THOMMEN, l.] 803

land which are the subject matter of consolidation proceed-
A
ings. The existence and quantum of rights claimed or
denied will have to be declared by the consolidation
authorities which would be deemed to be invested with
jurisdiction, by the necessary implication of their statutory
powers to adjudicate upon such rights and interests in land,
to declare such documents effective or ineffective, but, B
where there is a document the legal effect of which can only
be taken away by setting it aside or its cancellation, it could
be urged that the consolidation authorities have no power
to cancel the deed, and, therefore, it must be held to be
binding on them so long as it is not cancelled by a court
having the power to cancel it. In the case before us, the
plaintiffs claim is that the sale of his half share by his uncle c
was invalid, inoperative, and void. Such a claim could be
adjudicated upon by consolidation courts."
(emphasis supplied)

In Ningawwa v. Byrappa & 3 Ors., (supra), this Court referred D
to the well-established principle that a contract or other transaction
induced or tendered by fraud is not void, but only voidable at the
___,,,/ option of the party defrauded. The transaction remains valid until it
was avoided. This Court then said:

"The legal position will be different if there is a fraudulent E
misrepresentation not merely as to the contents of the docu-
...... ment but as to its character. The authorities make a clear
distinction between fraudulent misrepresentation as to the
character of the document and fraudulent misrepresenta-
tion as to the contents thereof. With reference to the
former, it has been held that the transaction is void, while F
in the case of the latter, it is merely voidable. In Foster v.
r Mackinon, [1869) 4 CP 704, the action was by the endorsee
of a bill of exchange. The defendant pleaded that he
endorsed the bill on a fraudulent representation by the
acceptor that he was signing a guarantee. In holding that
such a plea was admissible, the Court observed: G
It (signature) is invalid not merely on the ground of
fraud, where fraud exists, but on the ground that the
mind of the signer did not accompany the signature; in
other words, that he never intended to sign, and there-
fore in contemplation of law never did sign, the H
804 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [1990] 1 S.C.R.

A contract to which his name is appended ..... The
defendant never intended to sign that contract or any
such contract. He never intended to put his name to
any instrument that then was or thereafter might
become negotiable. He was deceived, not merely as
B to the legal effect, but as to the 'actual contents' of
the instrument."
(emphasis supplied)

From the facts narrated above, about which, as stated earlier,
there is no dispute, it is clear that this is a case where the plaintiff-
appellant was totally ignorant of the mischief played upon her. She
C honestly believed that the instrument which she executed and got
registered was a gift deed in favour of her daughter. She believed that
the thumb impressions taken from her were in respect of that single
document. She did not know that she executed two documents, one of
which alone was the gift deed, but the other was a sale of the property
in favour of all the defendants. This was, therefore, a case of fraudu-
0
lent misrepresentation as to the character of the document executed by
her and not merely as to its contents or as to its legal effect. The
plaintiff-appellant never intended to sign what she did sign. She never
intended to enter into the contract to which she unknowingly became a
party. Her mind did not accompany her thumb impressions. This is a

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E case that falls within the principle enunciated in Ningawwa v. By rap pa
& 3 Ors., (supra) and it was, therefore, a totally void transaction.
Accordingly, as stated in Gorakh Nath Dube (supra), the suit is not
maintainable by reason of the bar contained in the Act.

The High Court has, in our view, rightly held that the remedy of
the plaintiff lies in the proceedings pending before the consolidation
F
authorities and it is open to the parties to approach them for
appropriate relief. In the circumstances, we see no merit in this
appeal. It is, accordingly, dismissed, but we make no order as to costs.

P.S.S. Appeal dismissed.