HC imposes Rs 25,000 cost for colluding to grab property

The Madras High Court bench here today imposed a cost of Rs 25,000 on a person who colluded with another person to grab the land of a woman worth several crores by abusing the process of judiciary.
Justice N Kirubakaran, who described the action by V Vignesh and K A V S Veluchamy as a "first rank collusion with evil design to grab the land of the petitioner Radhalakshmi".
The cost should be paid within four weeks to the petitioner by Vignesh, the judge said.
The Judge also condemned the Sub-Judge of Srivilliputhur for not being vigilant enough to see whether Vignesh, from whom Veluchamy had borrowed Rs 1.28 lakh through a promissory note, had actually attached the property of Veluchamy for not repayment of the money, or the property of Radhalakshmi, who had not borrowed any money from Vignesh.

As per the Code of Civil Procedure the trial should really ensure that the attached property belonged to the borrower.
They cannot mechanically pass orders for attachment without verifying the ownership of the property. The court should have directed Vignesh and Veluchamy to produce documents to arrive at prima facie case that the property being attached belonged to Veluchamy.

Even after Radhalakshmi, who came to know that her property had been attached, filed an application questioning the attachment of her property.
The trial court had returned her petition saying that she had not locus standi nor was she a party to the dispute between Vignesh and Veluchamy.

The Judge set aside the order of the sub judge returning the application of the petitioner and said the trial court was wrong in saying that her application was not maintainable.
"It is a collusion between Vignesh and Veluchamy to have a claim over properties of Radhalakshmi and it is an attempt to give legal colour to the alleged right of Veluchamy over the attached properties, which actually belonged Radhalakshmi" the Judge said.
The Judge said that if this novel type of abusing the court process was not deprecated, no property will be safe in the country.