Execution objections cannot reopen concluded issues, and a decree is not void absent inherent lack of jurisdiction.
An executing court may examine resistance to delivery of possession under Order XXI CPC, but it cannot permit a collateral reopening of issues already concluded in the suit. A bare claim of cultivating-tenant possession, raised late and found unsupported, does not defeat execution where the objectors were aware of the decree and proceedings. A decree can be treated as a nullity only for inherent lack of jurisdiction; a later revenue entry or certificate, without a pre-existing legally cognisable tenancy right, does not oust civil court jurisdiction. The decree holders were therefore entitled to vacant and peaceful possession.
Issues: (i) whether the respondents' objection to execution of the decree on the claim of possession as cultivating tenants could be sustained in execution; and (ii) whether the respondents could invoke the Tamil Nadu Cultivating Tenants' Protection Act, 1955 and challenge the decree as a nullity for want of civil court jurisdiction.
Issue (i): whether the respondents' objection to execution of the decree on the claim of possession as cultivating tenants could be sustained in execution.
Analysis: Section 47 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 governs questions relating to execution, discharge and satisfaction of a decree between the parties to the suit, whereas Order XXI Rules 97, 98, 99, 101 and 103 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 constitute the specific scheme for resistance or obstruction to delivery of possession and for adjudication of all questions of right, title or interest arising in such proceedings. A mere assertion of possession raised at the execution stage cannot be used to reopen matters that ought to have been raised in the suit, and the executing court must test whether the obstruction is bona fide or is a device to defeat the decree. On the facts, the respondents were impleaded in the suit, were aware of the decree and the execution proceedings, and their claim of possession was found to be belated, unsupported and collusive.
Conclusion: The objection to execution was not sustainable, and the decree holders were entitled to obtain possession.
Issue (ii): whether the respondents could invoke the Tamil Nadu Cultivating Tenants' Protection Act, 1955 and challenge the decree as a nullity for want of civil court jurisdiction.
Analysis: A challenge to the decree as a nullity is available in execution only where the decree is shown to suffer from inherent lack of jurisdiction. The respondents failed to establish any independent and legally cognisable cultivating-tenancy right that would oust the civil court's jurisdiction. Their claim rested on a later revenue entry and a certificate obtained with the vendors' no objection after title had already passed to the decree holders. Such material did not establish a pre-existing legal bar to the suit or a jurisdictional defect in the decree, and the executing court could not treat the decree as void on that basis.
Conclusion: The respondents were not entitled to the protection claimed under the 1955 Act, and the decree could not be treated as a nullity.
Final Conclusion: The decree holders succeeded in execution, the contrary orders were unsustainable, and the execution court was required to proceed with delivery of vacant and peaceful possession to them.
Ratio Decidendi: In execution of a decree for possession, an executing court may adjudicate objections under the specific machinery of Order XXI, but it cannot permit a collateral retrial of issues already concluded in the suit, nor can it treat a decree as void absent inherent lack of jurisdiction.
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