TMI Blog2007 (2) TMI 696X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e same along with interest and damages was due to her. It was their case that the transactions had been entered into through Mahendra Kumar Nahata, and that through Nahata, they have had prior dealings with the respondent. They had averred thus in paragraph 4 of the plaint: The said Nahata in his usual course of business was known to the Defendant for many years and sometime in April, 2000 while acting on behalf of the Plaintiffs, the said Nahata at the request of Defendant had duly arranged for two loans of ₹ 5,00,000/- to be lent and advanced by each of the Plaintiffs to the Defendant and this Suit has been brought to recover the said loans with interest and special damages arising from the Defendant's failure to repay the said loans within the stipulated date therefor as is stated more- fully hereinafter. The respondent not having repaid the money and having repudiated their claim by filing suits against them, the suit for recovery of the amounts was being filed. 2. The respondent had earlier filed two suits for recovery of amounts allegedly due from the appellants. Money Suit No. 585 of 2001 was instituted by the respondent against appellant No. 2 herein cl ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e united their independent causes of action in the same suit in terms of Order II Rule 3 of the Code. It was submitted that there was not only misjoinder of parties but there was also misjoinder of causes of action. It was on this basis that the prayer for rejection of the plaint under Order VII Rule 11(d) of the Code was made. The appellants, the plaintiffs, resisted the application. They contended that the claim of the plaintiffs emanated from the dealings at the instance of Nahata, husband of plaintiff No.1 and father of plaintiff No.2 with the defendant and that there was no defect of misjoinder of causes of action in the suit. They submitted that the plaint was not liable to be rejected under Order VII Rule 11(d) of the Code. 5. The trial judge on the original side, considered the question whether the plaint filed by the appellants was liable to be rejected under Order VII Rule 11(d) of the Code on the basis that the suit appeared from the statements in the plaint to be barred by any law. The learned Judge took the view that there was no law barring a suit in which there was misjoinder of parties or a misjoinder of causes of action, though, of course, for the purposes of co ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... . But it is a different question whether a suit which may be bad for misjoinder of parties or misjoinder of causes of action, is a suit barred by law in terms of Order VII Rule 11(d) of the Code. The Code of Civil Procedure as its preamble indicates, is an Act to consolidate and amend the laws relating to the procedure of the Courts of Civil Judicature. No doubt it also deals with certain substantive rights. But as the preamble vouchsafes, the object essentially is to consolidate the law relating to Civil Procedure. The very object of consolidation is to collect the law bearing upon the particular subject and in bringing it upto date. A consolidating Act is to be construed by examining the language of such a statute and by giving it its natural meaning uninfluenced by considerations derived from the previous state of the law. 9. Based on this understanding, we can consider the respective positions of Order I and Order II in the scheme of things. Order I deals with parties to a suit and provides who may be joined as plaintiffs and who may be joined as defendants. It also deals with the power of the Court to direct the plaintiffs either to elect with reference to a particular plai ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ties actually before it. This is further emphasised by Rule 10 of Order I which enables the court in appropriate circumstances to substitute or add any person as a plaintiff in a suit. Order II deals with the framing of a suit and Rule 3 provides that save as otherwise provided, a plaintiff may unite in the same suit several causes of actions against the same defendant and any plaintiffs having causes of actions in which they are jointly interested against the same defendant may unite such causes of action in the same suit. Rule 6 enables the Court to order separate trials even in a case of misjoinder of causes of action in a plaint filed. 12. After the amendment of Order XVI Rule 1 in England, it was held by the Court of Appeal in England in Thomas Vs. Moore [(1918) 1 K.B. 555] thus: Whatever the law may have been at the time when (1894) A C 494 was decided, joinder of parties and joinder of causes of action are discretionary in this sense, that if they are joined there is no absolute right to have them struck out, but it is discretionary in the Court to do so if it thinks right. The Privy Council in Mahant Ramdhan Puri Vs. Chaudhary Lachmi Narain [A.I.R. 1937 Privy Cou ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... tion, to a Court having jurisdiction to try it. In the context of these provisions with particular reference to the Rules in Order I and Order II of the Code, it is clear that an objection of misjoinder of plaintiffs or misjoinder of causes of action, is a procedural objection and it is not a bar to the entertaining of the suit or the trial and final disposal of the suit. The Court has the liberty even to treat the plaint in such a case as relating to two suits and try and dispose them off on that basis. 14. Order VII Rule 11 (d) speaks of the suit being barred by any law . According to the Black's Law Dictionary, bar means, a plea arresting a law suit or legal claim. It means as a verb, to prevent by legal objection. According to Ramanatha Aiyar's Law Lexicon, 'bar' is that which obstructs entry or egress; to exclude from consideration. It is therefore necessary to see whether a suit bad for misjoinder of parties or of causes of action is excluded from consideration or is barred entry for adjudication. As pointed out already, on the scheme of the Code, there is no such prohibition or a prevention at the entry of a suit defective for misjoinder of parties or of ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e suit as it is or to direct the plaintiff or plaintiffs to elect to proceed with a part of the suit or even to try the causes of action joined in the suit as separate suits. 16. It cannot be disputed that the court has power to consolidate suits in appropriate cases. Consolidation is a process by which two or more causes or matters are by order of the Court combined or united and treated as one cause or matter. The main purpose of consolidation is therefore to save costs, time and effort and to make the conduct of several actions more convenient by treating them as one action. The jurisdiction to consolidate arises where there are two or more matters or causes pending in the court and it appears to the court that some common question of law or fact arises in both or all the suits or that the rights to relief claimed in the suits are in respect of or arise out of the same transaction or series of transactions; or that for some other reason it is desirable to make an order consolidating the suits. (See Halsbury's Laws of England, Volume 37, paragraph 69). If there is power in the court to consolidate different suits on the basis that it should be desirable to make an order co ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... But it is difficult to say that any of those decisions has taken the view that a plaint was liable to be rejected under Order VII Rule 11(d) of the Code on such a defect being pointed out. On the other hand, in Harendra Nath Vs. Purna Chandra [A.I.R. 1928 Calcutta 199] the Division Bench quoted from Payne Vs. British Time, Recorder Co. LTd. [(1921) 2 K.B. 1], the following passage: Broadly speaking, where claims by or against different parties involve or may involve a common question of law or fact bearing sufficient importance in proportion to the rest of the action to render it desirable that the whole of the matters should be disposed of at the same time the Court will allow the joinder of plaintiffs or defendants, subject to its discretion as to how the action should be tried. and continued: This is a good working rule for practical purposes and, applying it to the present case, it seems to us clear that the action as framed is justified by O.1, Rr.1 and 3, Civil P.C. Looking at the matter, however, from the point of view of O.1, R.2, we are of opinion that the trial of the suit as laid is likely to be somewhat embarrassing, especially as some of the questions that ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... is the nature of the transactions that was entered into by the respondent with each of the appellants and the evidence that has to be led, in both the suits, is regarding the nature of the respective transactions entered into by the respondent with each of the appellants. To a great extent, the evidence would be common and there will be no embarrassment if the causes of action put forward by the appellants in the present suit are tried together especially in the context of the two suits filed by the respondent against them and withdrawn for a joint trial. In the case on hand, therefore, even assuming that there was a defect of misjoinder of causes of action in the plaint filed by the appellants, it is not a case where convenience of trial warrants separating of the causes of action by trying them separately. The three suits have to be jointly tried and since the evidence, according to us, would be common in any event, the Division Bench was in error in directing the appellants to elect to proceed with one of the plaintiffs and one of the claims. We do not think that on the facts and in the circumstances of the case one of the appellants should be asked to file a fresh plaint so as ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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