Uttaranchal High Court: A writ petition was entertained by Manoj K. Tiwari, J. where the petitioner was aggrieved by the order passed by the Appellate Court, where it set aside the status quo passed by the learned trial court.
The Court observed the appellate jurisdiction over the original jurisdiction of the Courts and noted that, grant of temporary injunction was discretionary and appellate court should not interfere with such discretion of court of first instance except where discretion had been shown to exercised arbitrarily or capriciously or perversely or where the court had ignored the settled principles of law regulating grant or refusal of interlocutory injunctions, as held by the Supreme Court in Esha Ekta Appartments CHS Ltd. v. Municipal Corporation of Mumbai, (2012)4 SCC 689. It was also observed that the appellate courts when called upon to consider the correctness of an order of injunction passed by the trial courts which had reversed the order of lower courts, the Supreme Court had held that, “In such appeals, the appellate court will not interfere with the exercise of discretion of the court of first instance and substitute its own discretion except where the discretion has been shown to have been exercised arbitrarily, or capriciously or perversely or where the court had ignored the settled principles of law regulating grant or refusal of interlocutory injunctions.
‘An appeal against exercise of discretion was said to be an appeal on principle. Appellate court doesn’t reassess the material and seek to reach a conclusion different from the one reached by the court below if the one reached by that court was reasonably possible on the material. The appellate court would normally not be justified in interfering with the exercise of discretion under appeal solely on the ground that if it had considered the matter at the trial stage it would have come to a contrary conclusion. If the discretion had been exercised by the trial court reasonably and in a judicial manner the fact that the appellate court took a different view may not justify interference with the trial court’s exercise of discretion.’
Hence, the Court stated that scope of interference by the appellate court with the court that passed the order of temporary injunction was limited and in any case, two views were available then the view taken by the court of the first instance had to be maintained.
But Court while examining the instant petition noticed that the appellate court had not assigned any reason for disturbing the discretionary order passed by the trial court. It was also observed that in Maharwal Khejwaji Trust v. Baldev Dass, (2004) 8 SCC 488, the Supreme Court had held that “unless and until a case of irreparable loss or damage is made out by a party to the suit, the court should not permit a change of the said status quo, which may lead to loss or damage being caused to the party who may ultimately succeed and may further lead to multiplicity of proceedings.”
It was observed by the Court that trial court had considered three major points while passing the order was balance of convenience, prima facie case and irreparable loss to the parties, it indicated that the trial court was justified in directing the parties to maintain status quo in order to maintain and preserve property.
Thus, the petition was allowed and the order of the appellate court was set aside. [Ashok Kumar v. Pramil Kumar, 2019 SCC OnLine Utt 855, decided on 02-09-2019]
