Kanchhu vs Prakash Chand 2025 INSC 542 - CPC - Ex Parte Defendant Rights - Pleadings
Code of Civil Procedure 1908 -Order VI Rule 2- Pleadings, either in a plaint or a written statement, constitute the plinth on which the respective claims and defence of the parties to a civil suit rest. What a pleading ought to contain is provided in Order VI Rule 2, CPC. Only material facts, on which the party pleading relies for his claim or defence to succeed, have to be stated without the evidence by which the pleading is to be proved. (Para 19)
Code of Civil Procedure 1908 -The rights of a defendant in a civil suit where such defendant has been set ex parte. - Once the pleadings are complete but the defendant is set ex parte, and such order has attained finality, the defendant’s rights suffer a curtailment. He cannot produce evidence in defence and hence statements, which are in the nature of factual assertions, cannot be proved by leading evidence. Generally speaking, the limited right that the defendant, set ex parte, would have is confined to cross-examining the plaintiff’s witnesses. The effort has to be directed towards demonstrating that they are not speaking the truth and, thereby, demolish the case of the plaintiff. Essentially, therefore, in such a case the defendant has to convince the court that the case put up by the plaintiff is so false that the court ought not to accept it. However, if the defendant raises an issue on law which is traceable in the written statement, for instance, the suit is barred by limitation or Section 9, CPC is attracted, or if the relief claimed in the suit cannot be granted for reasons disclosed, the requirement of the defendant proving such defence as raised in the written statement by leading evidence may not arise and the court may frame an issue of law and decide the same. (Para 19)
Quotable Quotes
vigilance and diligence go hand-in-hand, making them two sides of the same coin, when it comes to pursuing/defending a legal action. (Para 16)
