IMPORTANT POINT
The court emphasized a purposive interpretation of statutory provisions to ensure equitable treatment for parties settling disputes privately, allowing for court fee refunds.

JUDGMENT :

Rajani Dubey, J.

1.Heard on I.A. No. 02/2024, application for withdrawal of the appeal and also prayer for refunding of the Court fees.

2.Learned counsel for the appellant while pressing the application for withdrawal of this appeal submits that the appeal is being withdrawn pursuant to an amicable settlement of dispute arrived at between the appellant and the respondent. Appellant abandoned his claim (claimed in FA No. 161/2022) against the respondent and he only seeks withdrawal of this appeal along with refund of Court fees affixed on memo of first appeal. To buttress her contention, reliance has been placed on the judgment of Hon’ble Supreme Court in the matter of High Court of Judicature at Madras Vs. M.C. Subramaniam and others reported in (2021) 3 SCC 560.

3.Learned counsel for the respondent does not dispute the factual position with regard to amicable settlement of dispute between the parties and that being the operative reason for withdrawal of the appeal.

4.In the matter of High Court of Judicature at Madras Vs. M.C. Subramaniam and others reported in (2021) 3 SCC 560 held in paras 13, 14, 15, 16 & 17 as under:-

13. The provisions of Section 89 of CPC must be understood in the backdrop of the longstanding proliferation of litigation in the civil courts, which has placed undue burden on the judicial system, forcing speedy justice to become a casualty. As the Law Commission has observed in its 238th Report on Amendment of Section 89 of the Code of Civil Procedure 1908 and Allied Provisions, Section 89 has now made it incumbent on civil courts to strive towards diverting civil disputes towards alternative dispute resolution processes, and encourage their settlement outside of court (Para 2.3). These observations make the object and purpose of Section 89 crystal clear – to facilitate private settlements, and enable lightening of the overcrowded docket of the Indian judiciary. This purpose, being sacrosanct and imperative for the effecting of timely justice in Indian courts, also informs Section 69-A of the 1955 Act, which further encourages settlements by providing for refund of court fee. This overarching and beneficent object and purpose of the two provisions must, therefore, inform this Court’s interpretation thereof.

14. Before expounding further on our interpretation of the aforesaid provisions, regard must be had to the following postulation of this Court’s interpretive role in Directorate of Enforcement v. Deepak Mahajan:(1994) 3 SCC 440 –

“24…Though the function of the Courts is only to expound the law and not to legislate, nonetheless the legislature cannot be asked to sit to resolve the difficulties in the implementation of its intention and the spirit of the law. In such circumstances, it is the duty of the court to mould or creatively interpret the legislation by liberally interpreting the statute.

25. In Maxwell on Interpretation of Statutes, Tenth Edn. at p. 229, the following passage is found:

‘Where the language of a statute, in its ordinary meaning and grammatical construction, leads to a manifest contradiction of the apparent purpose of the enactment, or to some inconvenience or absurdity, hardship or injustice, presumably not intended, a construction may be put upon it which modifies the meaning of the words, and even the structure of the sentence. … Where the main object and intention of a statute are clear, it must not be reduced to a nullity by the draftsman's unskilfulness or ignorance of the law, except in a case of necessity, or the absolute intractability of the language used.” (emphasis supplied)

15. Therefore, it is well settled that the Courts may, in order to avoid any difficulty or injustice resulting from inadvertent ambiguity in the language of a statute, mould the interpretation of the same so as to achieve the true purpose of the enactment. This may include expanding the scope of the relevant provisions to cover situations which are not strictly encapsulated in the language used therei