You can become owner of property by Adverse Possession [Read SC Order]

Recently, Supreme Court has noted that plea of acquisition of title by adverse possession can be taken by the plaintiff

Appellant/plaintiff filed a suit for declaration and injunction seeking a decree that he was owner in possession of land by way of adverse possession. The trial court decreed the suit in favour of the appellant/plaintiff. On an appeal being preferred by the respondent/defendant, the Additional District Judge set aside the trial court’s order on the grounds that the remedy of adverse possession is not available to the appellant/plaintiff and the possession of a mortgagee cannot be treated as adverse to the true owner.Feeling aggrieved by the order of the Additional District Judge, the appellant/plaintiff preferred a regular second appeal before the High Court, which dismissed the appeal. Matter reached the Supreme Court.

A bench of Justice Ramana, Justice Khanna and Justice Murari observed that plea of acquisition of title by adverse possession can be taken by the plaintiff. Case is titled as GURTEJ SINGH vs ZORA SINGH (DEAD) THROUGH LR & ORS. decided on 26.02.2020.

Supreme Court observed as under:

"Having heard learned counsel for the parties and carefully perusing the records placed before us, we are of the view that the High Court dismissed the second appeal without framing any question of law and simply relying on the judgment rendered by it in Bhim Singh and others (supra) wherein it has been held that plea of adverse possession is available only to a defendant and that a suit on the basis of adverse possession would not lie.

However, the High Court has not gone into other issues. Taking into consideration the fact that this Court in the Ravinder Kaur Grewal case(supra) has considered the judgment in the Bhim Singh case (supra) and explicitly overruled it, we are of the considered view that the impugned order passed by the High Court should be set aside and the matter be remanded to the High Court for fresh consideration in accordance with law. Ordered accordingly".

Read the Order here: