Himachal Pradesh High Court: Sandeep Sharma J., upheld the impugned judgment and dismissed the petition.
The facts, in a nutshell, are that parties to the suit of the impugned judgment are in joint owner-in-possession of the suit land. Father of the parties executed a Will dated 19-5-2003 in favour of plaintiff, defendant and proforma defendant 1. After execution of Will dated 19-5-2003, on account of uncalled for behaviour of the defendant, father of the plaintiff cancelled the Will dated 19-5-2003 and executed a fresh Will dated 3-4-2008. Proforma defendant, Krishna Devi also died during the pendency of the suit and as such, she also executed Will dated 1-8-2012 in favour of plaintiff. The instant petition is filed under Article 227 of the Constitution of India, laying challenge to order dated 18-4-2018 passed by learned Senior Civil Judge Nadaun, District Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh, whereby an application under Order XXIII, Rule 1(3) read with Section 151 Civil Procedure Code, seeking therein permission to withdraw the suit with liberty to file afresh, came to be dismissed.
The petitioner submitted that he should not suffer for lapse on the part of counsel as he failed to institute the suit against proper parties. The petitioner was represented by counsel Ramakant Sharma and Bhuvnesh Sharma. Counsel Sanjay Dutt Vasudeva represented the respondents.
The Court observed that since no proper service has been effected, the suit would fail, dismissed the application on the ground that non-joinder of proper parties cannot be said to be a formal defect, rather said defect can be cured by way of filing an appropriate application for impleadment/amendment of plaint
The Court held s well settled that non-joinder or non-description of suit land is not a formal defect, rather same can be cured by way of filing an appropriate application.
In view of the above, impugned judgment upheld and petition dismissed.[Joginder Singh v. Surinder Pal, 2020 SCC OnLine HP 1793, decided on 29-09-2020]
Arunima Bose, Editorial Assistant has put this story together