Section M Judgments and Decrees

95. General instructions as to the judgment. When the trial in Court is over the Revenue officer should proceed at once, or as soon as possible, to the consideration of his judgment. It is essentially necessary that he should do so while the demeanour of the witnesses and their individual characteristics are fresh in his memory. He should bear in mind that his first duty is to arrive at a conscientious conclusion as to the true state of those facts of the case about which the parties are not agreed. The oral and documentary evidence adduced upon each issue should be carefully reviewed and considered in the judgment. The judgment should contain a concise statement of the pleadings, the points for determination, the decision thereon, and the reasons for such decision. The judgment should be dated and signed in open Court at the time of pronouncing it, and should be pronounced in open Court at a time fixed for the purpose. When a judgment is not written by the presiding officer with his hand, every page of such judgment should be signed by him. It should contain the direction of the Courts as to costs.

96. Evidence and final order to be recorded legibly. Judgments (when not typewritten) should always be written in clear and legible manner. If they are not so written, such a copy should be made and placed with the record.

When a revenue officer has occasion to decide any case in accordance with any rules or orders of Government or of the Financial Commissioners, or under any section of an Act of the Legislature, he should make a reference in his order to such rules, orders or Acts and in recording his order he should as far as possible use the actual wording of such rules, orders of Acts.

97. Judgments must be written and announced within 14 dates from the date on which arguments and heard. Instances have occurred of Judgments not being written until a considerable time after final arguments in case have been heard. The practice is open to grave objection, and in any case in which judgment is not written and pronounced within 14 days from the date on which arguments were heard, a written explanation of the delay must be furnished by the Subordinate Court concerned to the Deputy Commissioner. This is not meant to encourage a practice of reserving judgments; on the contrary, judgments should ordinarily be written as soon as arguments have been heard. It is only in the exceptional case where the Court has to consider many rulings and cannot conveniently give judgment at once, that there is any justification for judgment being reserved.

98. Decree. The decree should be framed by the Revenue Officer with the most careful attention to its object. It must agree with the judgment and be not only complete in itself but also precise and definite in its terms. It should specify clearly and distinctly the nature and extent of the relief granted, and what each party affected by it, is ordered to do or to forebear from doing. Every declaration of right made by it must be concise, yet accurate every injunction, simple and plain.

99. Standard forms of decree prescribed in certain cases. Standard forms of decree for use in the following classes of Revenue Court cases have been prescribed by the Financial Commissioner: -

I.  Claims for right of occupancy.

II.  Claims to contest notice of ejectment.

III.  Claims for enhancement of rent.

IV.  Claims to declare void transfer of right of occupancy.

100. Powers of the Court to be disclosed. Every judicial officer hearing or deciding a suit, proceeding or appeal, shall ensure that the record and the final orders of judgment and the decree, shall disclose the powers which such officer exercised in hearing or deciding such suit, proceeding or appeal.

101. Preparation of decrees. The following directions relate to the preparation of decrees: -

(i) In decrees for possession of agricultural land it should be stated whether possession is to be given at once, or after the removal of any crop that may be standing on the land at the time when the decree is executed, or on or after any specified date;

(ii) in Appellate Courts the language used in filling in the decretal order, shall conform the action recognized by law, and shall direct that the decree of the lower Court be either ‘affirmed’, ‘varied’, ‘set aside’, or ‘reserved’. In each case in which a decree is affirmed the terms thereof shall be recited, so as to make the Appellate decretal order complete in itself. In varying a decree the relief granted in lieu of that originally granted shall be fully and accurately set out. Where a decree is reversed on appeal, the consequential relief granted to the successful party shall similarly be stated. Every decretal order shall be so worded as to be capable of execution without reference to any other document, and so as to obviate misunderstanding on the part of the persons concerned.

(iii) When any parties added or substituted in the course of the suit, care should be taken to see that their names are properly shown in the decree sheet.

102. Decrees based on compromise. When a decree is to be passed on the basis of a compromise, the Court should order the terms of the compromise to be recorded in accordance with the provisions of Order XXIII, Rule 3, Civil Procedure Code, and then pass a decree in accordance with the terms. When, however, the compromise goes beyond the subject-matter of the suit, a decree can be passed only in so far it relates to the suit. As regards the proper form of decree in the latter class of cases, the directions of their Lordships of the privy Council in ‘Hemant Kumari Debi versus Midnapur Zamindari Company’ (46 I.A. 240 and 244, and I.L.R.18 Cal. 485) should be followed. When any of the parties to the case are minors, care should be taken to see whether the compromise is to their benefit and record a finding to that effect if the compromise is sanctioned and made the basis of a decree.