PUNJAB & HARYANA HIGH COURT
Rajiv Narain Raina, J.
Nirmal Singh and Ors. - Appellant
Versus
Tarsem Singh and Ors. - Respondent
C.R. No. 3791 of 2013 (O&M)
Decided On : 01-05-2014
Clubbed Application - Amendment of Pleading - Order 6 Rule 17, Order 1 Rule 10 CPC - Summary
Fact of the Case:
The court addressed the issue of a single application under Order 6 Rule 17 read with Section 151 CPC for amending the plaint and Order 1 Rule 10 CPC for impleading proposed defendant Nos. 6 to 15. The court found that such clubbed applications caused confusion and difficulty for the trial Judge.
Finding of the Court:
The court found that the combined application created a judicial dilemma and could lead to complications and complexities in the future of the suit. It emphasized the need for separate applications to be filed and decided independently to serve the ends of justice.
Issues: The main issue was the improper presentation of a single application for amending the plaint and impleading proposed defendants, causing confusion and difficulty for the trial Judge.
Ratio Decidendi: The court emphasized the importance of filing separate applications for distinct reliefs to avoid confusion and to enable the trial Judge to deal with each matter separately and apply relevant legal principles.
Final Decision: The court set aside the impugned order and remitted the matter back to the trial Judge for re-consideration. The plaintiff was directed to file two separate applications, and the defendants were to file replies. The fresh applications were to relate back to the date of the original combined application.
1. After having heard the learned counsel for the parties at some length and in order to remove apparent confusion caused by the improper presentation of a single application under Order 6 Rule 17 read with Section 151 CPC for amending the plaint and Order 1 Rule 10 CPC for impleading proposed defendant Nos. 6 to 15 and with a view to stem the ill-effects of such a practice and the difficulty the trial Judge must face in passing a common order mixed-up by both law and facts I feel that it will serve the cause of justice more suitably if the learned trial Judge is asked to decide by separate orders the matters afresh after the applicant is called upon to file two independent applications with proper court fee affixed thereon and presented in the proper form. This would serve the ends of justice in a wholesome manner and make it easier for the trial court and this Court whenever such challenge is laid again. As a prophylactic, trial courts should disallow acceptance of such clubbed applications at the threshold, and if insisted, they should be returned forthwith to their owners with liberty to file them afresh by removing such patent defects. This pernicious practice has started, as I have found recently in more than one case in my present roster to examine interlocutory orders in civil revisions, to be a growing baggage of unwanted litigation. It should be curbed immediately. The mode adopted by the plaintiff in presenting two requests in one application can create havoc on the lis by impairing a Judge to think rationally and purposively when he is already overburdened with judicial work weighed in units. One application one order should be the norm scrupulously followed in the trial courts without any exception. If insisted, the Trial Courts should feel free to invoke their powers under Section 35B CPC to impose Costs.
2. When we examine such an issue as the one involving a clubbed application of the kind presented in this case, then by clubbing reliefs by intermingling facts necessary for the reliefs and causes of action and the pleadings, it is manifest that such a party is trying to steal a march by what appears either oblique motive or an engineering feat in delaying tactics thereby giving rise to a judicial dilemma not worth foisting on the already belaboured trial Judge. In the very nature of things the application under Order 1 Rule 10 CPC would have to be decided first to determine who should be added as parties in an ongoing suit. Once that is decided and if such parties are introduced each one of them would have a right to file their defence by presentation of a written statement admitting or denying the facts on which the plaintiff relies upon to obtain a decree. All such newly added parties would have a right to do many things including filing or presenting set offs and counter claims, applications under Order 7 Rule 10 & 11CPC, raising issues of limitations, seeking recall of witnesses examined by the plaintiff in their absence to face cross-examination, demanding refraining of issues, relying on burden and onus, and god knows-what, and other lurking steps in the proceedings not known or imagined even to a trained legal mind. Then, if the proposed amendments are allowed then each of the newly added defendants would have a right to traverse the averments made in the original plaint plus counter and rebut the amendments as may be allowed by the court in the plaint by putting in written statements leading to recasting or adding new issues the necessity of which may arise and cannot be stopped when justice demands. The complications and complexities that may arise in the future of the suit are imponderable. To travel such lengths for a party to allow change of track and the nature and character of suits is a question which begs answers from case to case. The twosome prayers co-existing in a single bed may seem awkward bedfellows to a regimented legally trained mind and as one which would ought not
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