Supreme Court commandment "Procedures shall always be subservient to Justice"

August,27,2015: The Supreme Court commanded that ‘Procedure is meant only to facilitate the administration of justice and not to defeat the same.’ The  Court further enumerated that on sufficient cause, delay in bringing the legal representatives of the deceased party on record should be condoned. A Bench of Justices T.S.Takur and R. Bhanumathi, set aside Delhi High Court order dismissing a Second Appeal on the ground that no steps were to bring on record the legal representatives. The court said that  ‘in our view, it would be unjust to non-suit the appellants on the ground of technicalities.”

The Supreme Court with respect to second appeal filed by the second appellant inn case tirled Banwari Lal vs Balbir Singh observed “When the second appeal was filed, the High Court Registry should have checked up the names of the parties as occurred in the decree of the courts below and the memo of second appeal and the defects should have been pointed out at that time”. 

The Court further enumerated  that prescribed procedure cannot be circumvented by filing application under Order I Rule 10,CPC read with Section 151,CPC. However the court said it would be unjust to non-suit the appellants on the ground of technicalities.

Citing the dictum laid down in Sardar Amarjit Singh Kalra V. Pramod Gupta and Sital Prasad Saxena (D) by Lrs. V. Union of India, the Court held “Provisions of Order XXII,CPC are not penal innature. It is a rule of procedure and substantial rights of the parties cannot be defeated by pedantic approach by observing strict adherence to the procedural aspects of law”.

Read the Full Text of the Judgment -

Supreme Court on Procedures