Betty E Menezes vs Life Insurance Corporation Of ...
2022 Latest Caselaw 5112 Bom

                                                                 5-ASCAL-26-2019-IN-LPA-301-2012.DOC




                            Pradip



                                 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY
                                           CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION
                                           CIVIL APPLICATION NO. 26 OF 2019
                                                              IN
                                      LETTERS PATENT APPEAL NO. 301 OF 2012
                                                              IN
                                            WRIT PETITION NO. 9494 OF 2010


                            Betty E Menezes                                            ...Applicant
                                   Versus
                            Life Insurance Corporation of India & Ors               ...Respondents


                            Mr Roop Basu, i/b The Law Point, for Respondent No. 1.


                                                   CORAM        G.S. Patel &
                                                                M.G. Sewlikar, JJ.

                                                   DATED:       7th June 2022
                            PC:-


PRADIPKUMAR

PRAKASHRAO 1. The Applicant and her Advocate are absent today. The IA has DESHMANE Digitally signed by PRADIPKUMAR been listed after a long gap. The relief sought in the IA is for a PRAKASHRAO DESHMANE Date: 2022.06.08 16:34:02 +0530 modification of an order dated 9th January 2013 passed in the Letters Patent Appeal No.301 of 2012 by a Division Bench of this Court (A.M. Khanwilkar, as he then was, and KK Tated, J). That Writ Petition was directed against an order and judgment dated 12th October 2010.

7th June 2022 5-ASCAL-26-2019-IN-LPA-301-2012.DOC

2. The proceedings arise under the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorized Occupants) Act, 1971. The order impugned in the writ petition upheld the order of eviction passed by the Estate Officer of the Life Insurance Corporation but reduced the quantum of damages from Rs. 93,665/- per month to Rs 15,000/- per month.

3. The Interim Application points out that there is an order dated 31st August 2010 (pages 59 to 64 of a learned Single Judge of this Court RG Ketkar, J) in a Writ Petition filed by Life Insurance Corporation where the question arose about the correctness of the computation of damages. Ketkar, J found that the Estate Officer had quite incorrectly rejected the expert opinion of the valuer and reduced the compensation or damages unilaterally without a disclosed basis. The order of Ketkar, J was not carried higher.

4. In the present Letters Patent Appeal, the order of 9th January 2013 in paragraph 5 records the statement by Counsel for the present Appellant to deliver possession within three months but this was subjected to the filing of an undertaking in the usual form and also "paying the outstanding dues as demanded by the Respondent". It is this direction that has caused the present Interim Application and of which the Applicant seeks a modification. She points out that Ketkar, J had remitted the matter to the City Civil Court for a fresh adjudication on the question of damages.

5. We are informed across the bar that the Applicant/Appellant's Appeal before the City Civil Court has in fact

7th June 2022 5-ASCAL-26-2019-IN-LPA-301-2012.DOC

itself been dismissed for non-prosecution. Details are presently unavailable.

6. All this needs to be resolved once and for all. We will give the Appellant and her Advocate a final opportunity. The Registry is directed to issue notice to the Applicant at the address given in the cause title and also to contact her Advocate.

7. We list the IA initially for directions on 17th June 2022.

(M.G. Sewlikar, J)                                    (G. S. Patel, J)





                             7th June 2022