The Madras High Court on Wednesday laid down a timeline for disposal of a civil suit filed by M.A.M.R. Muthiah, the adopted son of late industrialist M.A.M. Ramaswamy, to declare as null and void a lease deed executed by his father in favour of the latter’s sister-in-law Kumara Rani Meena Muthiah with respect to a portion of the property within the precincts of the Chettinad House at Raja Annamalaipuram here.
Disposing of an appeal preferred by Mr. Muthiah challenging a single judge’s October 10 order declining interim relief in the suit, a Division Bench of Justices Rajiv Shakhdher and N. Sathish Kumar made it clear that observations made by the judge touching upon the validity of the adoption and the appellant’s approach towards his father before the latter’s death should not impact the merits of the suit or any other proceedings.
The clarification was made after senior counsel A.L. Somayaji, representing the appellant, contended that the observations made by the judge were completely “unnecessary, unwarranted and outside the scope of the suit.” The counsel apprehended that the “observations, opinions and comments” in the interim order might affect the rights of the appellant not only in the present suit but also in other legal proceedings.
After taking note of his submissions, the Bench ordered maintenance of status quo with respect to the property in question until the disposal of the suit which was ordered to be listed before the single judge on December 21 for framing of issues. Thereafter, cross examination of witnesses on both sides should begin, and upon completion of recording of evidence, the case should be listed for arguments on March 30, 2018, the judges ordered.
During the course of hearing of the appeal, it was brought to the notice of the Bench that Mr. Muthiah had initially instituted a suit before a city civil court, during the lifetime of his father, in 2015 to restrain the latter from alienating certain properties and obtained an order of status quo. Since the lease deed, in question now, was executed after the status quo order, the adopted son had chosen to file the present suit to declare it as null and void.
The judges were also told that the suit filed before the city civil court had now been transferred to the High Court. Since Mr. Ramaswamy had died pursuant to the filing of that suit and he could now be represented only by his legal heir, Mr. Justice Shakhdher pointed out that a “peculiar situation” had arisen now where the plaintiff as well as the defendant in the suit would be the same person since Mr. Muthiah claims to be the legally adopted son.