2012 (1) TMI 409 - HC - Indian Laws

Summary

Issues Involved:
1. Reconstruction of lost court records.
2. Determination of the status of the pending suit.
3. Allegations of deliberate destruction of court records.
4. Request for an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

Summary:

Reconstruction of Lost Court Records:
A suit for the redemption of a mortgage executed on 3 September 1925 was instituted in 1969. The original records of the suit were lost, and the Prothonotary and Senior Master granted reconstruction of the record on 14 January 2009 without notice to the Defendants and without determining whether the suit was still pending. The Plaintiffs sought to reconstruct the records, but the Defendants objected, claiming the suit might have been dismissed in default.

Determination of the Status of the Pending Suit:
The suit was placed before various Learned Single Judges, and issues were framed. However, the Defendants contended that the records had not been reconstructed in accordance with the law. The Division Bench allowed the Defendants to inspect the Minute Books and suit register to ascertain if the suit had been dismissed. The inspection revealed that the relevant pages of the suit register and the Minutes Book were missing, leading to an enquiry by a senior judicial officer to determine the status of the suit.

Allegations of Deliberate Destruction of Court Records:
The enquiry officer reported that the pages containing entries for Suit Nos. 1 to 50 for the year 1969 were missing, and there was no trace of Suit No. 36 of 1969. The officer suggested that a conspiracy might have been hatched to destroy the records, given the enormous value of the properties involved. The learned Attorney General of India supported this view, arguing that the records had been systematically destroyed, and an offence had been committed.

Request for an Investigation by the CBI:
The Plaintiffs argued that the Defendants, who were mortgagees in possession of the property, had a motive to destroy the records. They contended that the suit should be presumed pending in the absence of any judicial order dismissing it. The Court, however, noted the complete effacement of any trace of the suit from the records and found a prima facie case of deliberate destruction of court records. The Court ordered an enquiry by the CBI into the circumstances of the missing records and declined to allow the trial to proceed until the basic question of the suit's status was resolved.

Conclusion:
The Court entrusted the CBI with the task of conducting an enquiry into the destruction of the records and adjourned the hearing to 13 April 2012, emphasizing that it would be unsafe to proceed with the trial until the suit's status was determined.