High Court penalises Ludhiana tehsildar for filing ‘frivolous’ plea

“It will be open to the state to recover the costs from the officer found guilty of filing this frivolous suit,” Justice V K Sharma ruled. The directions were passed over an appeal filed by one Sucha Singh,a resident of Ludhiana. The dispute pertained to the allotment of a plot belonging to Sucha Singh,which the latter wanted to transfer in somebody’s name. The same was objected to by the office of tehsildar citing some rules.

The trial court rejected the plea of Sucha Singh. Aggrieved,he moved the High Court. Allowing the revision filed by Sucha Singh,Justice Sharma ruled: “It prima facie seems to be malafide exercise having been filed on wrong advice. Tehsildar (Sales) Ludhiana (West) had no locus standi to maintain the suit on behalf of the state government. It is pertinent to mention here that in spite of defect having been pointed out by this court,the tehsildar instead of correcting the mistake to save the interests of the government has chosen to contest this revision petition tooth and nail. It is not understood as to how the necessity arose to file a suit,to get the decree declared as null and void as it is well settled law that a person who is not a party to the decree is not bound by the decree.”