High Court directs the Court to list the matter, when it would proceed to hand over notices for effecting service upon the respondents/defendants directly under Order 5 Rule 9-A CPC and then proceed to fix the matter for consideration, when arguments on the application for ad-interim relief shall be heard by the Court afresh. This honorable judgement was passed by High Court of Shimla in the case of Meena Versus Mohit Kumar Gupta and another [CMPMO No.105 of 2021] by The Hon’ble Mr. Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan, Judge.
The plaintiff had obtained an ex-parte ad-interim order in her favour despite a caveat petition having been filed by the respondent/defendant. The learned first appellate Court before whom the appeal was filed by the respondent committed no irregularity much less illegality in vacating the ex-parte ad-interim order that had been passed in favour of the petitioner. Record reveals that the learned first appellate Court had passed the order and directed the parties to appear before the learned trial Court, but the certified copy of the order was made available to the petitioner only. It was stated by learned counsel for the petitioner that this order was not even got uploaded on the official website by the learned first appellate Court. The learned first appellate Court needed to explain its position regarding this aspect of the matter.
The order was passed by trial court referring the case of G.C. Siddalingappa vs. Veeranna, AIR 1981 Karnataka 242, C. Seethaiah vs. Government of Andra Pradesh and others, AIR 1983 Andra Pradesh 443, and M. Krishnappa Chetty and another vs. P.E. Chandrasekaran.
The court was of the opinion that, “The learned first appellate Court was absolutely right in setting aside the ex-parte ad-interim order passed by the learned trial Court, but then it was also required to ensure that the order so passed directing the parties to appear before the learned trial Court on the next date of hearing was made available to the parties. Construction, if any, raised during the pendency of the litigation is always a serious matter where every day counts and it may be extremely difficult to balance the equities at later stage.”
The court disposed of the case stating that, “Therefore, in the given circumstances, this Court directs the learned trial Court to list the matter forthwith on 26.04.2021 when it would proceed to hand over notices for effecting service upon the respondents/defendants directly under Order 5 Rule 9-A CPC and then proceed to fix the matter for consideration on 30.04.2021 when arguments on the application for ad-interim relief shall be heard by the Court afresh.”
