IMPORTANT POINT
The main legal point established is that applications for amendment of the plaint under Order 6, Rule 17 of the Code of Civil Procedure must contain specific averments and necessary ingredients, and the proposed amendments should be clearly spelled out.

JUDGMENT :

Ajay Mohan Goel, J.

By way of this petition, filed under Article 227 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner has challenged order dated 18.12.2019, passed by the Court of learned Civil Judge (Senior Division), Court No.II, Shimla, H.P., in Civil Suit No.9006218/14, titled as Smt. Chander Kanta vs. Smt. Praveen Thakur, in terms whereof, an application filed under Order 6, Rule 17 of the Code of Civil Procedure by the contesting respondent herein was allowed after impleadment of the petitioner as defendant No.2 in the Civil Suit.

2. Learned counsel for the petitioner has submitted that no doubt the respondent/ plaintiff after the impleadment of the petitioner as a party defendant had a right to file an amended plaint, but then the application filed under Order 6, Rule 17 of the Code of Civil Procedure ought to have been specific as to what the proposed amendments were, why they were necessitated after the impleadment of the petitioner as a defendant and the application ought to have been accompanied by an amended plaint. In the absence of these necessary ingredients learned Trial Court erred in allowing the application.

3. Learned counsel for the respondent/plaintiff has submitted that there is no infirmity in the order passed by the learned Trial Court, because the proposed amendments were duly spelled out in the application filed under Order 6, Rule 17 of the Code of Civil Procedure, which stands allowed by a reasoned order passed by the learned Trial Court and now in terms of the directions passed by the Court, the respondent/plaintiff shall be filing an amended plaint to which written statement can be filed by the petitioner. Accordingly, he prayed that the present petition being devoid of any merit be dismissed.

4. Having heard learned counsel for the parties and having carefully gone through the documents appended with the petition including the application filed under Order 6, Rule 17 of the Code of Civil Procedure as well as the order impugned, this Court is of the considered view that there is some merit in the grievance raised by the petitioner by way of this petition.

5. Order 1, Rule 10 (4) of the Code of Civil Procedure provides that where a defendant is added, the plaint shall unless the Court otherwise directs, be amended in such manner as may be necessary and amended copies of the summons and of the plaint shall be served on the new defendant and if the Court thinks fit, also on the original defendant.

6. Order 6, Rule 17 of the Code of Civil Procedure deals with amendment of pleadings and it provides that the Court may at any stage of the proceedings allow either party to alter or amend his pleadings in such manner and on such terms as may be just, and also such amendments shall be made as may be necessary for the purpose of determining the real question in controversy between the parties. Provided that no application for amendment shall be allowed after the trial has commenced, unless the Court comes to the conclusion that in spite of due­diligence, the party could not have raised the matter before the commencement of the trial.

7. Order 6, Rule 18 of the Code of Civil Procedure provides as under:­

“18. Failure to amend after order­ If a party who has obtained an order for leave to amend does not amend accordingly within the time limited for that purpose by the order, or if no time is thereby limited then within fourteen days from the date of the order, he shall not be permitted to amend after the expiration of such limited time as aforesaid or of such fourteen days, as the case may be, unless the time is extended by the Court.”

8. In the present case, the proviso appended to Order 6, Rule 17 of the Code of Civil Procedure does not comes into play because here the respondent/plaintiff was having a statutory right to amend the plaint after the impleadment of the petitioner as a party defendant. However, fact of the matter remains that the application which was filed under Order 6, Rule 17 of the Code of Ci