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Judgment
S.S. Sodhi, J.
Does the present Letters Patent Appeal stand barred by res judicata ? Herein lies the controversy raised at the very threshold of the hearing of this appeal.
Shri Guru Singh Sabha (Regd.) (hereinafter referred to as ''The Society'') owns shops in Faridabad which are in possession of its tenants. It is said that there is a strip of land adjoining these shops which belongs to the Rehabilitation Department. A policy decision was taken by the Haryana Government as embodied in its order of February 28, 1984, annexure P/l, in terms of which it was decided that the adjacent land may be transferred to the occupants, at rates, mentioned therein. Both the Society and the tenants in occupation of shops applied for transfer of this adjacent land. The question then arose as to who would fall within the meaning of the expression "occupant" for the purposes of the policy for transfer of such land. The learned Single Judge held that it would be the owner of the land, that is, the Society and not the tenants, who were occupying the shops owned by it.
Some of the tenants occupying shops of the Society as tenants preferred P.L.A. 792 of 1991, which was dismissed in limine on July 23, 1991.
It was the contention of Mr. Ashok Aggarwal, counsel for the respondentSociety (Shri Guru Singh Sabha (Regd.), Faridabad that the present appeal filed by another tenant, would now stand barred on the principles of re judicata. This contention must indeed prevail. The principle enunciated by the Supreme Court in Sheodan Singh v. Daryan Kunwar, AIR 1966 Supreme Court 1332, clearly being applicable here, it was observed there:
"Where the trial Court has decided two suits having common issues on the merits and there are two appeals therefrom and one of them is dismissed on some preliminary ground, like limitation or default in printing, with the result that the trial Court''s decision stands confirmed, the decision of the appeal Court will be res judicata and the appeal Court must be deemed to have heard and finally decided the matter. In such a case, the result of the decision of the appeal Court is to confirm the decision of the trial Court given on merits, and if that is so the decision of the appeal Court will be res judicata whatever may be the reason for the dismissal.
Following the rationale of the Supreme Court in Sheodan Singh''s case (supra), this appeal is hereby dismissed as being barred by res judicata. There will, however, be no order as to costs.