Suit in name of wrong plaintiff || Order 1 Rule 10 || CPC||

Suit in name of wrong plaintiff || Order 1 Rule 10 || CPC||

     In this article, we will discuss the topic relating to suit in the name of the wrong plaintiff under Order 1 Rule 10 of the CPC.

Introduction:-

                             Where a suit has been instituted in the name of the wrong plaintiff, the court may at any stage of the suit, if satisfied that the suit has been instituted through a bona fide mistake, order any other person to be substituted or added as plaintiff upon such terms as the court thinks just. Rule 10 of the Order 1 of the CPC deals with the provision relating the suit in the name of the wrong plaintiff.

Striking out, adding or substituting parties: Rule 10 of Order 1:-

Object of this provision:-

                                                The object of this provision is to save the honest plaintiffs, believing bonafide in the maintainability of their claims being non-suited on a mere technical ground, it was held in the case of the Anil Kumar  V. Shivnath, (1995) 3 SCC 147.

          In case of Razia  Begum v. Sahebzadi Anwar Begum, AIR 1958 AP 195, it was held that the policy is to decide the real matter in controversy between the parties bypassing the mere technical objection for defeating a just and honest claim by discouraging puerile contest on technicalities.

   The provision, therefore, must be liberally construed so as to advance the cause of justice.

                                                                                                         

Adding or substituting plaintiffs:-

                                                          After the filing of the suit an application for addition and substation of the plaintiff can be made, if the plaintiff discovers the following;

1.     That he cannot get the relief he seeks without joining some other person also as a plaintiff; or

2.     Where it is found that some other person and not the original plaintiff to entitle to the relief as prayed for.

Conditions:-

                             It was held, in the case of the Razia Begum v. Sahebzadi Anwar Begum, AIR 1958 AP 195, that the following condition must be satisfied to bring a case within this sub-rule:-

       I.            The suit has been filed in the name of a wrong person as plaintiff;

    II.            Such mistake must be bona fide; and

 III.            The substitution or addition of the plaintiff is necessary for the determination of the real matter in dispute.

Illustration:-

                             C, the agent of A, under a bona fide mistake files a suit against B in his own name. The court can substitute the name of principal A for that of the original plaintiff C.

          Such an amendment may be allowed by the court at any stage of the suit or even at the appellate stage and upon such terms and conditions as it thinks just. No person can be added as a plaintiff without his consent.

Striking out or adding parties:- 

                                                          Sub-rule (2) of Rule 10 empowers the court to add any person as a party to the suit on either of the two grounds:

(i)                Such a person ought to have been joined as a plaintiff or a defendant, and is not so joined; or

(ii)             Without his presence, the question involved in the suit cannot be completely decided.

Anil Kumar v. Shivnath (1995) 3 SCC 147;

                                                                             It was held that the purpose of this provision is to bring, all the persons interested in the dispute, before the court, at the same time, so that the dispute may be finally determined at the same time in the presence of all the parties without the delay, inconvenience, and expense of several actions and trials and inconclusive adjudications.

Effect:-

          Where any person is added as a defendant in the suit, as regards him, the suit shall be deemed to have been instituted from the date, he is joined as a party (Rule 10(5).

                   According to Rule 10 (4) where a defendant is added, the plaint shall be amended and the amended copies of the summons and the plaint must be served on the new defendant.