Court caseAIR 1975 All 132

The plaintiff, Prabhu Dayal, constructed sixteen shops on the old foundations of his building in a town area without giving the notice and obtaining the sanction required by the municipal law that governed the Town Area Committee. The Committee, treating the construction as unauthorised, demolished it. The plaintiff sued the Committee for compensation for the loss caused by the demolition, alleging that the demolition was illegal and that the Committee had acted maliciously and out of ill will towards him. The trial court decreed the suit; the matter came before the Allahabad High Court.

The High Court held that the plaintiff was not entitled to compensation. Since the construction itself had been made in contravention of the law, without the required notice and sanction, the plaintiff had no legal right to maintain it, and its demolition by the authority entitled to act did not infringe any legal right of his. The loss he suffered was therefore damnum sine injuria. The allegation of malice did not help him: where the act causes no legal injury, the motive of the person doing it, however improper, does not create a cause of action. The suit failed.