More Stories

Informist, Tuesday, Jun. 10, 2025

 

NEW DELHI – The Delhi High Court has rejected Reliance Eminent Trading and Commercial Pvt. Ltd.'s plea seeking a summary judgment for recovering INR 4.60 billion, along with interests, from Delhi Development Authority regarding a plot at Jasola, New Delhi. A summary judgment is a court decision made in favour of one party and against another without a full trial. 

 

The high court held that the suit by Reliance Eminent Trading, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Ltd., cannot be determined in a summary manner. "The plaintiff in the present application has failed to meet the twin tests that – (a) the defendant has no real prospect of successfully defending the claim and; (b) there is no such compelling reason why the claim should not be disposed of before recording of oral evidence," said the court.

 

The court said that as it had opined that recording of oral evidence was necessary and summary judgment cannot be passed, all other issues were left open for the parties to be raised at the appropriate stage. The high court will now hear the main suit filed by Reliance Eminent Trading against Delhi authority for recovery of money on Aug. 28.

 

The high court noted that it was an admitted case that Simla Devi was the original owner of the land, of which the plot was a part, before commencement of acquisition proceedings by the Delhi authority. However, according to the petitioner, possession of the plot was taken by some miscreants led by one Sachin Bidhuri claiming himself to be the rightful owner of the property. The court said that there was no undisputed or unimpeachable material on record to suggest that Sachin Bidhuri was in physical possession of the plot, being its rightful owner.

 

Since the Delhi authority had handed over the possession of the plot to Reliance Eminent Trading upon receiving total consideration of the plot, the plaintiff was obliged to return the physical possession of the said plot to the authority, said the court. Reliance Eminent Trading will have to establish by "leading evidence" that the possession was already with the original owner namely, Simla Devi or her successor-in-interest, in order to claim refund of the monies paid by it towards the consideration of plot, said the court.

 

Since Reliance Eminent Trading was in possession of the plot as owner thereof, it ought to have protected its possession, or taken steps to recover the possession when it was dispossessed, said the court. "The court is, therefore, of the considered opinion that without offering possession of plot back to the DDA (Delhi Development Authority), or at least establishing that the rightful owner is already in possession of the plot, the plaintiff cannot claim refund of consideration amount paid by it," said the court. 

 

The case has its genesis from Reliance Eminent Trading being the winner of an auction conducted by the Delhi authority for the plot at Jasola, New Delhi. After depositing the entire money, Reliance Eminent Trading got possession of the plot by the Delhi authority in 2008. However, the land in which the plot was situated had its original owner as Simla Devi, who got an order in her favour by the Supreme Court in 2016 for physical possession of the land. 

 

In 2016, Reliance Eminent Trading got dispossessed of the plot when unknown persons entered the premises and forcefully took possession from the plaintiff. Thereafter, Reliance Eminent Trading moved the high court seeking its money which was paid for the plot. Since the Delhi authority has retrospectively lost its title over the land, the title of the plot it subsequently conveyed to the plaintiff was no longer valid as well, said Reliance Eminent Trading, seeking money from the authority. 

 

On Tuesday, the shares of Reliance Industries Ltd. closed 0.7% lower at INR 1,438.50 on the National Stock Exchange.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Deepshikha Bhardwaj

 

For users of real-time market data terminals, Informist news is available exclusively on the NSE Cogencis WorkStation.

 

Cogencis news is now Informist news. This follows the acquisition of Cogencis Information Services Ltd by NSE Data & Analytics Ltd, a 100% subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. As a part of the transaction, the news department of Cogencis has been sold to Informist Media Pvt Ltd.

 

Informist Media Tel +91 (11) 4220-1000

Send comments to feedback@informistmedia.com

 

© Informist Media Pvt. Ltd. 2025. All rights reserved.