In O.S.A.No.88 of 2021-MAD HC- Madras HC dismisses order of Single Judge as suit was decreed without affording opportunity to defendants to file written statement and oral/documentary evidence was not recorded Justices M.Duraiswamy & Sunder Mohan [13-06-2022]

Read Order: Somnath Mukherjee Vs. The Kennel Club Of India And Ors

LE Correspondent

Chennai, June 16, 2022: Remitting the matter back to the Single Judge, the Madras High Court has asserted that in any suit, the parties should be given opportunity to file written statement, issues must be framed and after conducting the trial, the suit can be decided either way. 

The Bench of Justice M.Duraiswamy and Justice Sunder Mohan deprecated the way in which the Single Judge handled the matter and said, “In the case on hand, the learned Single Judge decreed the suit without affording an opportunity to the defendants to file written statement and not recording oral and documentary evidences of the plaintiff as against the settled law.”

The factual matrix of this case was such that the first respondent-plaintiff had fiiled a suit in to declare that the plaintiff is a registered Society and many other reliefs were also sought. The Single Judge, by a Judgment decreed the suit. Challenging the same, the sixth defendant had filed the Original Side Appeal.It was the case of the appellants that that the defendants including the Government of Tamil Nadu were not given an opportunity to file written statement or to let in oral evidences before decreeing the suit.

Considering that in this case neither the plaintiff nor the defendants were given an opportunity to let in oral and documentary evidences, the Bench remarked that when the defendants are contesting the suit, others should have been given an opportunity to file written statement and contest the suit, in accordance with law.Thus, allowing the appeal, the Bench directed the Single Judge to give sufficient opportunity to the defendants to file their written statement and after recording the oral and documentary evidences of both sides, decide the suit on merits.