Judgment

R.V. Raveendran, J.

1. Leave granted.

2. The respondent (`TISCO' for short) filed a suit (C.S.No.12/2003) in the Calcutta High Court against the appellant for recovery of a sum of Rs.2,02,72,505/40 in regard to supply of steel. In the said Suit, the respondent filed an application on 8.8.2003 praying for a decree upon admission for Rs.74,57,074/50 alleging that the appellant had admitted liability for such sum, as per minutes of the meeting held on 9.12.2000 between representatives of respondent and appellant. The said application was resisted by the appellant contending that there was no such admission on 9.12.2000 or any other date and pointing out that what transpired on 9.12.2000 was only a tentative agreement to have the accounts verified and not a final settlement or admission of liability.

3. A learned single Judge of the Calcutta High Court by order dated 22.2.2008, granted a judgment on admission under Order 12 Rule 6 of the Civil Procedure Code (`Code' for short) for a sum of Rs.47,06,775/- in favour of the respondent-plaintiff, subject to respondent furnishing a bank guarantee for a sum of Rs.48,00,000/- in favour of the Registrar of the High Court. The intra appeal filed by the appellant was dismissed by the Division Bench of the High Court by judgment dated 22.9.2008. The said judgment is under challenge in this appeal by special leave.

4. Order 12 Rule 6 of the Code provides that where admission of facts have been made in the pleadings or otherwise, whether oral or in writing, the Court may at any stage of the suit either on the application of any party or of its own motion and without waiting for the determination of any other question between the parties, make such order or give such judgment as it may think fit, having regard to such admissions.

5. The specific case of the respondent-plaintiff in the application was that at a meeting held on 9.12.2000 for reconciling the accounts as on 31.3.1999, the appellant admitted that a sum of Rs.74,57,074/50 was outstanding to the respondent and therefore it was entitled to a judgment on admission for that amount. The learned single Judge found that there was no such admission in regard to Rs.74,57,074/50 in the minutes of the meeting dated 9.12.2000. He however held that the minutes of the meeting dated 9.12.2000 recorded an admission by the appellant in respect of a sum of Rs.47,06,775/70 and consequently made a judgment on admission in regard to Rs.47,06,775/70 against the appellant. The question is whether such judgment on admission was justified.

6. The sum of Rs.74,57,074/50 described as the amount admitted to be due by the appellant, has nothing to do with appellant (Himani Alloys Ltd.). It is an amount that actually figures in the minutes of a meeting held on 23.2.2001 between the representatives of the respondent and another company by name Himani Ferro Alloys Ltd. Thus the specific case of admission put forth by the respondent in its application seeking a judgment on admission, was found to be incorrect. The respondent did not refer to or rely upon any other admission, nor sought judgment in regard to any other admission. Once the claim of the respondent regarding admission was proved to be incorrect, its application for judgment on admission ought to have been rejected by the High Court. The High Court could not have embarked upon an enquiry as to whether there was some other admission nor given a judgment on the basis of such other admission, not pleaded by the respondent-plaintiff. If the respondent wanted to rely upon some other admission, it ought to have made a separate application, so that the appellant could have filed its objections to the same. That was not done.

7-8. Assuming that the High Court could have examined whether there was some other `admission' in the minutes of the meeting dated 9.12.2000 relied on by the respondent, let us examine whether there was in fact any admission, on the basis of which a judgment on admission could h