The transfer of suits under Article 227 of the Constitution may occur without identical parties if substantial overlap in the subject matter exists, as per Section 24 of the CPC.

JUDGMENT (Oral)

1. This petition, under Article 227 of the Constitution of India, assails an order dated 12th April, 2022, passed by the learned Principal District & Sessions Judge ("the learned Pr. D & SJ") in Misc. No. 187/2022 (Praveen Sharma & Anr. v. Chander Prabha & Ors).

2. By the said order, the learned Pr. D & SJ has transferred CS 516/2021 (Chander Prabha Mahajan v. Shri Charanjit Lal Wason & Ors.) from the Court in which it was pending to the Court in which CS 448/2021 (Praveen Sharma & Anr. v. Chander Prabha) was pending.

3. Chander Prabha, the plaintiff in CS 516/2021 and the defendant in CS 448/2021, assails the order, invoking, for the purpose, the jurisdiction vested in this Court by Article 227 of the Constitution of India.

Facts

4. The learned Pr. D & SJ has transferred CS 516/2021 to the Court which was hearing CS 448/2021 on the ground that the parties to the suit property in dispute between them were the same.

5. Stricto sensu, this observation is not wholly correct as the defendants in CS 516/2021 (Shri Charanjit Lal Wason & Ors.) are not parties in CS 448/2021. Praveen Sharma, the plaintiff in CS 448/2021 was also, originally, not a party in CS 516/2021, but Mr. Suri, learned Counsel for Praveen Sharma, submits that, subsequently, he was impleaded by the petitioner in CS 516/2021 by moving an application under Order I Rule 10 of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 (CPC).

6. Section 24(b) of the CPC does not, however, envisage identity of parties in the two proceedings as a determining, or even a governing, factor for exercise of jurisdiction, by the District Court for transfer of proceedings from one Court to another:

"24. General power of transfer and withdrawal.

(1) On the application of any of the parties and after notice to the parties and after hearing such of them as desired to be heard, or of its own motion without such notice, the High Court or the District Court may at any stage

(a) transfer any suit, appeal or other proceeding pending before it for trial or disposal to any Court subordinate to it and competent to try or dispose of the same, or

(b) withdraw any suit, appeal or other proceeding pending in any Court subordinate to it, and

(i) try or dispose of the same; or

(ii) transfer the same for trial or disposal to any Court subordinate to it and competent to try or dispose of the same; or

(iii) retransfer the same for trial or disposal to the Court from which it was withdrawn."

7. Section 24 does not, therefore, require that, for a suit to be transferred from the Court hearing it to the Court which is seized of a connected matter, the parties in both the proceedings must be the same.

8. There is no dispute about the fact that the property forming subject matter of controversy in CS 448/2021 and CS 516/2021 was the same, i.e. the second floor of the property bearing No. 662/3-A Shivaji Gali, Pandit Park, Krishna Nagar, New Delhi-110051 (hereinafter referred to as `the suit property').

CS 448/2021 (Praveen Sharma & Anr. v. Chander Prabha)

9. CS 448/2021 (Praveen Sharma & Anr. v. Chander Prabha) was filed earlier in point of time. Praveen Sharma and the second plaintiff t