HP High Court reiterates bar on appealing consent decrees under CPC Section 96(3)

The Himachal Pradesh High Court, in a judgment by Justice Romesh Verma, affirmed that where a final decree in partition proceedings is passed based on a compromise duly acknowledged and signed by all parties, an appeal against the consent decree is barred under Section 96(3) of the Civil Procedure Code, 1908. The court upheld the first appellate court's dismissal of the appeal as not maintainable.

The dispute stemmed from a 2009 suit for partition of jointly owned ancestral property. The trial court passed a preliminary decree in 2012 granting each plaintiff and defendant a 1/4th share. During final decree proceedings, a Local Commissioner was appointed to oversee the partition mode. After the commissioner's report, the parties reached a compromise and made joint statements accepting the partition arrangement.