Point of Law: Order 1 Rule 10 CPC casts duty upon court to ensure impleadment and deletion of party, which may or may not be necessary for adjudication of case.

JUDGMENT :

(Sandeep Sharma, J.)

1. Being aggrieved and dissatisfied with order dated 17.1.2019, passed by the learned Senior Civil Judge, Una, District Una, H.P., whereby an application under Order 1 Rule 10 CPC read with Section 151 CPC, having been filed by the respondents-plaintiffs ( herein after referred to as “the plaintiffs”), came to be allowed, petitioner-defendant (herein after referred to as “the defendant”), has approached this Court in the instant proceedings filed under Article 227 of the Constitution of India, praying therein to set-aside aforesaid impugned order.

2. Precisely, the facts of the case, as emerge from the record are that, plaintiffs namely S/s Kirpal Singh, Kashmir Singh, Gian Chand, Smt. Lag Devi, Sh. Mohinder Singh and Saroj Kumari filed suit bearing No. 823/13 for declaration and permanent injunction under Sections 34 to 38 of the Specific Reliefs Act, averring therein that they alongwith defendant No.1-Jit Singh i.e. petitioner herein and proforma respondent No.7 i.e. Rumal Singh, are owner in possession of the total land measuring 1-25-33, being LRs of late Sh. Harnam Singh i.e. real brother of the plaintiff No.1, respondent No.4 and respondent No.7. Since aforesaid Harnam Singh died issueless, all his brothers, who are plaintiffs herein, filed suit as detailed herein above, however petitioner defendant Jeet Singh, who is nephew of deceased Harnam Singh claimed that he is entitled to entire property left by the Harnam Singh on the strength of will, whereby deceased Harnam Singh bequeathed his entire property in the name of petitioner-defendant.

3. Petitioner defendant filed written statement to the suit, wherein he besides refuting the claim of the plaintiff on merit specifically raised issue with regard to non-joinder of the parties. Petitioner defendant claimed that Smt. Satya Devi and LRs of two other sisters of deceased Harnam Singh namely Dharam Dei and Vidya Devi, are required to be arrayed as plaintiffs. In the replication to the written statement, respondent-plaintiff specifically denied that suit filed by them is bad for non-joinder of the parties. On the basis of pleadings adduced on record by the respective parties, court below framed various issues including issue with regard to non-joinder of the parties. After recording of statements of witnesses of both the parties, but before leading evidence, if any, on additional issue framed by the court, respondents-plaintiffs filed an application under Order 1 Rule 10 CPC, praying therein for impleadment of Smt. Satya Devi, sister of the deceased Harnam Singh. Aforesaid prayer made by the plaintiffs came to be resisted by the petitioner-defendant on the ground that there is inordinate delay in filing the application and now with the filing of the application, an attempt has been made by the plaintiff to delay the further proceedings. Apart from above, petitioner defendant also claimed that in case prayer made by the respondents-plaintiffs is allowed, it would change the entire complexion of the suit, however, fact remains that court below ignoring all the objections taken by the petitioner-defendant proceeded to allow the application, as a result of which, Smt. Satya Devi, came to be impleaded as one of the plaintiffs. Since two other sisters namely Dharam Dei and Vidya Devi had expired, their legal heirs were not brought on record as they were not entitled to property, if any, of the deceased Harnam Singh. In the aforesaid background, petitioner defendant has approached this Court in the instant proceedings, praying therein to set-aside aforesaid order.

4. Having heard learned counsel for the parties and perused material available on record vis-à-vis reasoning assigned in the order impugned in the instant proceedings, this court finds that objection with regard to non-joinder of the parties was taken by the defendant i.e. petitioner herein, at the first instance by filing written statement and at that time, such plea, set up by the petitione