JUDGMENT Mr. K. Kannan, J.: (Oral) - The appeal is filed by the appellants claiming the property as their own property and relied on a decree of civil Court where the property acquired by the Government had been the subject of an earlier dispute filed by the appellants and several others against Gram Panchayats. The civil suit No.240 of 1983 had been decreed on a statement recorded from the Sarpanch giving the evidence on behalf of the Gram Panchayat and by admitting the claim of the plaintiffs in the said suit that they were owners of the property and in possession of the same. The judgment have been passed on 29.04.1983. 2. It was contended before the reference Court that notwithstanding the said judgment, a suit had been filed by the Gram Panchayat to set aside the decree. The reference Court found that there was no document that was brought to prove that there was any such subsequent suit but still held that the claimants had not proved their ownership who staked a claim to the amount determined as payable for acquisition of the property. 3. A case where a civil Court decree makes a declaration of ownership and possession, the said decision if it had obtained on compromise, it will operate an estoppel from a party who is privy to such a compromise. In this case, the Panchayat who had bound itself to the decision granted on a concession by the functionary of the Panchayat was bound by the decision unless the decision was shown to be brought out by fraud or collusion. There is no such attempt at the trial. So long as the decree stood, the Gram Panchayat was barred from contending that the applicants were not entitled to rely on the civil Court decree for establishing their ownership to the property. The trial Court had omitted to notice that the civil Court decree excluded any scope for a defence by the Gram Panchayat that the appellants were not the owners of the property which was acquired. 4. The award of the reference Court is set aside and the appeal is allowed declaring the appellants before the Courts below as the owners entitled to claim the amount determined as compensation payable for acquisition of the property. ---------0.B.S.0------------