VIKRAMAJIT SEN, J.

( 1 ) THE appellant has assailed the Order dated 22/4/2003 passed by the joint Registrar which records that the Appellant had not filed any Reply to the Interim Application seeking to implead the legal representative of defendant No. 3 who had already expired prior to the filing of the Suit. The impugned Order is a cryptic one and keeping in view the circumstances of the case it is quite probable as has been strenuously contended before me that the counsel for the proposed Legal Representatives had orally raised various objections against the very maintainability of the application.

( 2 ) LEARNED counsel for the Appellant places reliance on the decision in hira Lal Patni v. Sri Kali Nath, AIR 1962 Supreme Court 199, which categorically and unambiguously states that if a Suit is filed against a defendant who was already dead on the date of the institution of the suit, it would be a nullity. This decision had been followed a Single Bench of this court in Pratap Chand Mehta v. Smt. Krishna Devi Mehta, AIR 1988 delhi 267. Prior thereto in Prestige Finance P. Ltd. (O. L.) v. Balwant singh, 1978 Rajdhani Law Reporter 246, another Single Bench had also come to the sam