SANJIB BANERJEE, J.

(1.) TWO of the defendants seek leave to amend the written statement filed on their behalf in this suit for partition and administration and include a counter claim therein. The proposed counter claim is directed both against the plaintiff and some of the other defendants, who attempt to resist it on the principal ground that it would change the nature and character of the suit and bring within its fold issues that a partition suit cannot accommodate.

(2.) NO preliminary decree has yet been made but the opposing parties remind of the principle recognised in Order VIII Rule 6a of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 that a counter claim may not be received if the cause of action indicated therein is one that arose after the date of filing of the written statement or after the time within which the written statement was required to be filed. The applicants claim that tenants and rank trespassers had been inducted into premises no. 6a, Balmukund Mackar Road, Calcutta - 700007 which is partly occupied by the parties as their residence. It is evident that the persons that the applicants describe as trespassers may have been inducted subsequent to July 16, 1996