Plaintiff is master of suit, cannot be compelled to fight against another: Calcutta High Court

The Calcutta High Court recently observed that courts, as a rule, should not add a person as a defendant to a suit when the plaintiff opposes such an addition or impleadment of a party. [Shri Jogesh Gupta v. Shree Shree Iswar Satyanaraynji & Ors].This is because a plaintiff cannot be compelled to fight against someone, Justice Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee explained. “In fact as a rule the court should not add a person as defendant in a suit when the plaintiff is opposing to such addition. The reason is that the plaintiff is dominus litis. He is the master of the suit. He cannot be compelled to fight against whom he does not claim any relief,” the order stated..The Court was hearing a plea for impleadment by a person who claimed that he had rights over a property involved in a court dispute between certain other parties.In order to protect his alleged rights on the said suit, the petitioner had initially filed an application under Order 1 Rule 10(2) (which deals with impleadment of third parties) of the Code of Civil Procedure (CPC) before the civil court so that he may be added a defendant to the suit.After the civil court rejected this application, the petitioner moved the High Court for relief. The petitioner asserted that his rights would be affected if he was not added as a party to the dispute. He further argued that such impleadment would also reduce multiplicity of cases..The High Court, however, rejected this plea. Justice Mukherjee noted that whether or not the petitioner may be indirectly affected by the case was irrelevant to deciding if he should be impleaded in the suit.“So ultimate decision is upon court to decide whether petitioner’s presence in suit required or not for effective and conclusive adjudication of the suit,” the High Court observed..It proceeded to opine that the civil court, in this case, had given sufficient reasons to reject the petitioner’s request for impleadment and to conclude that his presence was not required for the adjudication of the dispute.The Court added that the petitioner can file an independent suit in the matter or raise an objection if any execution proceeding affecting his rights is initiated if a decree is passed by the trial court..Advocates Srijib Chakraborty, Subhasis Chakraborty, Deeptangsu Kar and Sushmita Kumari Singh appeared for the petitioner. Advocates Haradhan Banerjee, Partha Pratim Mukherjee, Sakya Sen and Animesh Paul appeared for various opposing parties..[Read Order]