HIGH COURT OF CALCUTTA
Samir Kumar Mookherjee & Amal Kanti Bhattacharjee, JJ.
Pranatesh Chandra Mukherjee & Ors.
Vs.
Smt. Snigdha Mukherjee &. Anr.
C.O. 3340 of 1991
Decided On : March 12,1992
AMENDMENT OF PLAINT - ORDER VI RULE 2 OF CODE OF CIVIL PROCEDURE - REJECTION OF AMENDMENT - EVIDENCE - SECTION 138 OF THE EVIDENCE ACT - RECALLING OF WITNESSES - REJECTION OF AMENDMENT AND RECALLING OF WITNESSES - FACTS NOT RELATING TO DISPUTED PROPERTY - NO DISPUTE BETWEEN PARTIES TO DEEDS AND PLAINTIFFS - NO NEED FOR ADJUDICATION IN PRESENT SUIT - AMENDMENT NOT ALLOWED - SECTION 138 OF EVIDENCE ACT - APPLICATION FOR RECALLING WITNESSES - COURT TO CONSIDER ACCORDING TO LAW AND MERIT.
Fact of the Case:
Plaintiffs filed a suit for partition and based their claim of title to the disputed property on a document allegedly executed by the husband of opposite party no. 1 in 1972, which was challenged on the ground of absence of mental and physical capacity of the executant. The defendants, in the suit, filed an application for amendment of the plaint and leave to recall a witness, P.W.2, to substantiate the executant's mental capacity by relying on the execution of certain other documents relating to properties not subject to the instant suit.
Finding of the Court:
The court held that the amendment of the plaint should be allowed on a stricter scrutiny and that the plaintiffs could not plead the execution of the deeds relating to Bihar properties, which were not the subject matter of the dispute, in the plaint due to the specific bar created by Order VI Rule 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure. The court also held that the fact of execution of the deeds could not be relied upon by the plaintiffs for their claim or defense and that the court would not be impeded in effectively and completely adjudicating the present dispute notwithstanding the absence of pleading of the said fact.
Issues: Whether the amendment of the plaint should be allowed.
Ratio Decidendi: The court relied on the principles governing the prayers for amendment of the plaint and held that the amendment should be allowed on a stricter scrutiny. The court also relied on Order VI Rule 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure, which bars the pleading of facts that are not relevant to the dispute.
Final Decision: The court set aside the impugned orders allowing the amendment of the plaint and recalling of the witness, P.W.2. However, the court clarified that the plaintiffs could make an appropriate application under section 138 of the Evidence Act before the trial court for recalling any of their witnesses, including P.W.2.
S.K. Mookherjee, J: By this Revisional application, the defendants, in a Title Suit no. 94 of 1977, inter alia, for partition challenge Order no. 134 dated 5th of June, 1991 and Order no. 136 dated 7th of September, 1991 passed by the learned Assistant District Judge, 3rd Court, Alipore. By the first order, the learned Assistant District Judge allowed a prayer for amendment made on behalf of the plaintiffs, who are opposite parties in the present application for Revision and by the second order, the learned Judge permitted the plaintiffs to recall a witness viz, P.W.2.
2. We have heard Mr. Roychowdhury in support of the Revisional application and Mr. Bagchi on behalf of the plaintiffs/opposite parties. It appears admitted that in the suit for partition, Mr. Roychowdhury's clients were basing their claim of title to the disputed property on a document allegedly executed by the husband of opposite party no. 1 in the year 1972, which was challenged on the ground of absence of mental and physical capacity of the executant of the document. It further appears from the materials produced before us, as part of records of the Trial Court, that for the purpose of substantiating that the executant had mental capacity, execution of certain other documents relating to properties, which were not subject matter of the instant suit, allegedly executed by the same executant in the years subsequent to 1972, had been pleaded in the Written Statement as a fact and on the basis of such pleading as also in the context of the deposition in examination in chief of the plaintiff Who deposed as P.W.2, questions were put in cross-examination on behalf of Mr. Roychowdhury's clients, defendants in the suit, touching the said documents, which did not relate to the properties in the instant suit. In the background of such facts, although the suit was instituted in the year 1977 and Written Statement was filed on or about 21st of February, 1978, the application for amendment was made on or about 8th of May, 199 I along with an application for leave to recall P.W.2, which was filed on 17th of June, 1991 after the order no. 134 had been passed.
3. As far as the principles governing the prayers for amendment of the plaint are concerned, the position is well settled. The amendment of the plaint should be allowed on a stricter scrutiny though the general principle governing such prayers for amendment, namely, that all amendments, which are needed for a complete and effective adjudication of the dispute between the parties are concerned, ought to be liberally allowed, does hold good even with regard to the amendments of the plaint. On behalf of the contesting parties a number of decisions of the Supreme Court as also this Court have been cited which reiterate the above legal position unequivocally. The said principles no doubt apply with full force to the facts of the present case, but at the same time there is no authority which permits a Court, while giving effect to the above principles, to overlook the basic considerations about the nature of the suit, the controversy involved therein and the nature of the issues which require an effective adjudication. In the instant case the issue, which is required to be decided and which has been set up by the plaintiff for justifying the prayers for amendment and recalling of PW 2, relates to the mental and physical capacity of Sunil Mukherjee, the executant of the disputed deed on the basis of which the contesting defendant claim to derive title. As already indicated none of the said deeds relates to the disputed property in the present litigation. The-parties to the said deeds also are not parties to the present litigation nor is there any dispute between the said parties and the present plaintiffs calling for an adjudication in the present suit. The effect of execution of the said deeds by Late Sunil Kr. Mukherjee at best can constitute a piece of relevant evidence on the question of his mental or physical capac
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