Under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, can a compromise decree be challenged by filing a fresh suit?
Coram: Sudhanshu Dhulia; Ahsanuddin Amanullah
No. Order 23 Rule 3A bars it — no suit shall lie to set aside a decree on the ground that the compromise on which the decree is based was not lawful. The only remedy available to a party to a consent decree is to approach the court which recorded the compromise and made a decree in terms of it, on an application under the proviso to Rule 3 of Order 23, and establish that there was no compromise. Even a party who says the compromise was procured by coercion must take that route; a fresh suit is not a valid remedy.
Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 — Or. 23 rr. 3, 3A — Or. 2 r. 2 — s.96(3) — Compromise decree — Consent decree — Recall application — Res judicata — Joint family property — Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 — Or. 23 r. 3A — Compromise decree — Bar to a fresh suit — Held: No suit lies to set aside a decree on the ground that the compromise on which the decree is based was not lawful; the only remedy is a recall application before the court which recorded the compromise. (¶11, 12) Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 — Or. 23 r. 3 — s.96(3) — Consent decree — Estoppel — Held further: Before passing a decree on a compromise the Court must satisfy itself that the suit has been adjusted by a lawful compromise; a consent decree then operates as an estoppel and is valid and binding until set aside by that court. (¶10, 12) Joint family property — Purchase in the name of a member from family funds — Held further: Property purchased in the name of a member out of family funds is joint family property, and a son whose interest was represented by his father in that partition cannot afterwards call the compromise an act of fraud. (¶7, 8) Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 — Or. 2 r. 2 — Res judicata — Re-agitating a partitioned claim — Held further: A later suit which omits properties that were part of the earlier suit is barred under Order 2 Rule 2, and a claim to property already partitioned cannot be re-agitated; appeal dismissed. (¶14, 15)
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