Amendment of Pleadings
INTRODUCTION
The Indian judicial system is striving hard to deal with the backlog of cases and with a backlog of 4 Crore cases pending, it is a matter of concern. Several cases are pending from beyond 10 years and many others are yet to be heard.
AMENDMENTS TO PLEADINGS EXPLAINED
Meaning of Pleadings in Law: Pleadings are statements given in writing by each party to another and before the court, the statement discloses the cause of action, contentions, allegations, and prayer. The pleading is a chance to bring to the knowledge of the court actual facts which lead to the institution of the suit. All the material facts should be brought forward before the court as the ground for the decision will be these facts which are stated in the pleadings. Once the parties have submitted the copy of their side of pleading before the court and to the other party, the other party gets a chance to present his side of material facts which either was being missed, ignored, or deliberately missed or ignored by the first party.
There are instances when due to some reason the party was not able to mention some material facts in the pleadings earlier but later got to know about the fact. At his stage will the parties will be allowed to state these facts? If yes, at what stage this can be accepted by the court. Under what provision of law one will be allowed to amend any statements already presented before the court.
ORDER VI RULE 17
Under Order VI, Rule 17 of the Civil Procedure Code, Pleadings are defined, it is stated that once a pleading has been submitted to the court and either of the party want to delete, add or amend any statement already mentioned in the pleading. Pleading from the side of the plaintiff are known as ‘Plaint’ and in the case of the defendant as ‘Written Statement’.
‘Plaint’ is filed by the plaintiff who brings the suit in the court and claims his right and Defendant present ‘Written Statement’ by which they either admit or reject the claim of the plaintiff.
The plaint should be drafted with due care before the suit is initiated. Following rules must be kept in mind;
- The plaintiff should not mention the law in the plaint, only the facts should be mentioned in the plaint. The court knows the law and not the facts and hence the pleader should mention the facts of the case only and not the law.
- Unnecessary and immaterial facts are not required by the court and are not admissible by the court and one should avoid mentioning any such fact which is not related to the matter or case.
- Facts should be precise with information and if there is any amount involved the amount should be precisely mentioned followed by the relief from the court.
AMENDMENT TO PLEADINGs
- The court may allow the parties to amend the pleadings in such manner and on such terms as the court may deem just and it is to be noted that the amendment should have been necessary to determine the actual facts in controversy.
- It is also to be noted that once the trial has been commenced the amendment shall not be allowed but in the certain case where it is proved to the satisfaction of the court that even after due diligence the party was not able to present the fact before the commencement of trial.
- The court before allowing the application to amend the pleading should consider that whether the amendment is necessary to determine the actual question in dispute? Will the direction of the case be diverted by allowing the application? Whether or not a new cause of action is arising, if there is any multiplicity of the suit?
- The court may reject the application if the abovementioned factors are not satisfied and no important fact or question is left behind, or if the parties were negligent in and ignorant to mention the fact in the pleadings itself.
- The court may also refuse to allow the application if it will just deviate the actual purpose of the case.
CASE LAW: In Modi Spinning & Weaving Mills Co.v Ladha Ram & Co 1976, the Hon’ble Supreme Court held that an application of amendment of pleadings is rejected when a wholly news case is introduced before the court. It further stated that the court cannot allow the defendant to take advantage of this provision and be allowed to completely change the case and present entirely a new case before the court.
CASE LAW:- In Surender Kumar Sharma v Makhan Singh 2009 the Hon’ble Supreme Court while determining the cause of rejection of amendment application by High Court noted an important ground as ‘the prayer was a belated prayer for amendment furthermore it was not related to the actual question of controversy’. The court has the discretion to allow the application on the factors whether or not it is relevant with the present case or not.
CASE LAW:- In North Eastern Railway Administration Gorakhpur v Bhagwan Das through LRs 2008 the Hon’ble Supreme Court relied on the case Pirgonda Hongonda Patil v. Kalgonda Shidgonda Patil where the amendment of pleading ought to be allowed on two conditions i) If the amendment will not do injustice to the other side ii) hold the actual question of controversy of the parties and the original pleading is not having the present essential fact.
CASE LAW:- In Usha Devi v. Rijwan Ahamd and Others, The Hon’ble court observed that Order 6 Rule 17 CPC stated that amendment of pleadings shall not be allowed at the stage where the trial of the suit has already started and documentary evidence by the parties were yet to be filed. Though it is prohibited that once the trial has been commenced the amendment cannot be filed but looking into the matter and relevancy of documentary evidence. The court allowed the parties to filed documentary evidence in the present matter as it was necessary for the ends of justice.
CONCLUSION
In the present order, the court is not restrictive unless and until the negligence and carelessness on the side of parties can be seen per se. There are circumstances where the amendment is sometimes allowed along with reasonable cost as in the end the main aim of the court is not to impart punishment but justice.