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TMI Blog1965 (10) TMI 75X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 1952 it caught fire as its engine was defective and some petrol tins were allowed to lie therein which also caught fire and as a result thereof the said Navneetlal had to jump out of the truck and in so doing he struck against a stone and got killed almost instantaneously. The defendant State contested this suit on a number of grounds with which it is unnecessary to dwell at this stage. This suit was decided by the District Judge, Pratapgarh by his judgment dated the 31st of August, 1957 and a decree was passed in favour of the plaintiff Parwati Devi against the defendant State to the effect that the latter shall pay to the plaintiff ₹ 14,760/- together with the costs of the suit. The State thereupon filed this appeal on the 5th of November, 1957. When it came up for hearing on the 12th of January, 1965, it was brought to the notice of the Court that Mst. Parwati Devi, the sole respondent in the appeal had died as early as the 14th of April, 1960 and that her legal representatives had not been brought on the record and substituted for her within the time permitted by law, and consequently this appeal had abated and must be dismissed as such. The learned Government Advocate ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... disposed of this point. "the award of the arbitrator in each of these cases was a joint one. . . . . . . . The result of the abatement of the appeal against Ladhu Ram is therefore that that his legal representatives are entitled to get compensation on the basis of this award, even if they are to be paid separately on calculating their rightful share in the land acquired, for which this compensation is decreed. Such calculation is foreign to the appeal between the State of Punjab and Nathu Ram. The decree in the appeal will have to determine not what Nathu Ram's share in this compensation is, but what is the correct amount of compensation with respect to the land acquired for which this compensation has been awarded by the arbitrator. The subject matter for which the compensation is to be calculated is one and the same. There cannot be different assessments of the amounts of compensation for the same parcel of land. The appeal before the High Court was an appeal against a decree jointly in favour of Ladhu Ram and Nathu Ram. The appeal against Nathu Ram alone cannot be held to be properly constituted when the appeal against Labhu Ram had abated. To get rid of the joint de ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... such damages as it may think proportioned to loss resulting from such death to the parties respectively, for whom and for whose benefit action shall be brought; and the amount so recovered, after deducting all costs and expenses, including the costs not recovered from the defendant, shall be divided amongst the before-mentioned parties, or any of them, in such shares as the Court by its judgment or decree shall direct. " This section provides a clear departure from the general rule that a right of suit in connection with a personal cause of action dies with the death of such person and enables an executor, administrator or a representative of the deceased person to bring an action for damages for the benefit of the family of the deceased. It seems to us that any lawful representative of the deceased person may bring such an action and wherever it has been so brought, it shall be for the benefit of the wife, husband, parent and child, if any, of the deceased. In these circumstances, we are categorically of the opinion chat the suit which is so brought for the benefit of the family of the deceased, even though it may be brought by any one of them, is a representative suit inasm ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... legal representatives also the right does not survive. It was further laid down that in such a case the proper procedure is for the remaining persons to apply to the Court for directions whether the Court will be pleased to permit the remaining persons to continue to prosecute or defend the suit or to authorise an additional person to do so who need not necessarily be the legal representative of the deceased person. It was further held that to say that in all such cases, first that the legal representatives should be brought on record, and secondly that if they are not brought on record, the suit abates is to defeat the ends of justice. Again, in Surendra Nath Saha Vs. Harendra Kumar Saha (3) it was laid down that where a representative suit is brought by a plaintiff with leave of Court, then on his death, no substitution is necessary and others who have been granted authority to represent the class can go on and all that is required is that the Court should be apprised of his death. Again, in Jagdam Ram Vs. Asarfi Ram (4), it was held that if the Court has permitted a certain number of persons to institute or defend a suit in a representative capacity on behalf of others and wh ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e abatement of the suit or the appeal. The principle, which seems to us to have been uniformly accepted in these decisions, is that a suit like this is not brought by or against a person in his personal capacity but is brought by or against him as a representative of a class of persons and even if the representative or representatives who has or have so brought the suit, or against whom a suit is so brought, happen to die, then the other person or persons whom the deceased represented would still be interested in the litigation in the very nature of things and cannot but be held constructively to be parties to the suit, and in this type of case the question of abatement cannot properly arise. We should further like to point out that the principle which applies to suits brought under O. 1, r. 8 of the Code of Civil Procedure with the sanction of the Court should be held equally applicable to a suit like the present which has to be brought by a party in a representative capacity according to substantive law. Both classes of suits are equally representative and must fall to be governed by a like principle. In accordance with the legal position, which we have discussed above, suppose t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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