Justice Chandrachud and Justice M. R. Shah’s bench was hearing a special leave petition against the Delhi High Court verdict confirming the trial court’s order for trial under Order 11 Rule 21, CPC. The order under Rule 21 was passed due to the failure of Hindustan Zinc, failure to follow an instruction under Rule 11 Rule 12 entered into between BHEL and the defendant, for the discovery of the work protocol.
While Rule 12 is a provision for ‘application for the discovery of documents’, Rule 21 states that if either party fails to comply with any order for answering the inquiry, or for the discovery or inspection of the documents. If a plaintiff, would be liable, for want of prosecution, his suit was dismissed, and, if any defendant, for his defense, if any, he was thrown out, and kept in the same position as if he had not defended.
Justice Chandrachud said, “The moment the courts (start taking civil law seriously), people will start forcing … Civil proceedings mean nothing to the parties. The reason is that the courts are so lax.”
“Imagine that the Supreme Court of India is hearing this case. It will not be tolerated anywhere in the world!”, The judge said.
