The Madras High Court Bench here has admonished the Kanyakumari police for not providing protection to a litigant in executing a civil court decree passed in his favour for taking possession of his land after demolishing a building constructed on it by another individual.
Passing interim orders in a criminal original petition filed by the litigant K. Madhavan Nair, Justice C.T. Selvam said: “Disobedience of orders of court with gay abandon and refusing rendering of help to parties towards their having the benefits of decrees of court in their favour, to say the least, is reprehensible.”
The judge directed the High Court Registry to furnish a copy of the entire case bundle to the Kanyakumari Superintendent of Police who, in turn, were directed to take appropriate action and inform due compliance of the court orders within a period of two weeks.The said direction is issued in the hope that the seriousness of the situation would be realised at least now,” the judge said after pointing out that the police had failed to act following requests made by Padmanabhapuram District Munsif to provide protection for executing the decree.
Earlier during arguments, the petitioner's counsel Sreekumaran Nair pointed out that a Sub-Court in Padmanabhapuram had initially dismissed a civil suit filed by his client in 1998 for recovery of the property from an individual named Francis. However, on appeal, the first appellate court reversed the judgment and granted a decree for recovery of possession after demolishing the building within the property.
Thereafter, the decree was confirmed by the High Court as well as the Supreme Court.
In 2010, the petitioner filed an execution petition before the District Munsif for executing the decree.
A court Amin visited the property on several occasions to execute the decree but he could not as the defendant raised objections and prevented the execution of the decree.
Subsequently, the Munsif wrote letters to the SP and Kulasekaram Inspector of Police on January 12 and February 6 respectively seeking police assistance in executing the decree.
Replying to it, the Inspector expressed his inability to render any help due to his preoccupations and hence the present case.
Keywords: Madras High Court, litigant protection
