Amit Arora and Another vs Municipal Corporation Shimla and Others

Tarlok Singh Chauhan, J.—This petition under Article 227 of the Constitution of India is directed against the order dated 18.11.2013 passed by learned Civil Judge (Junior Division), Court No. VI, Shimla in case No. 49/1 of 13 whereby the application filed, under Order 1 Rule 10 read with section 151 CPC, for impleading the respondents No. 2 & 3 as defendants in the suit has been allowed.

I am not inclined to go into the merits of the case, because admittedly there are number of cases already pending between the present petitioner and respondents No. 2 and 3 herein and therefore, their impleadment or non-impleadment virtually has no effect on the claim set up by the petitioner.

One disturbing feature, which has been brought to my notice by the learned counsel of both the parties is that more than 10 proceedings of different kind, the details of which are given as under, are pending adjudication in different courts at Shimla, as a result of which the litigation inter se the parties has become cumbersome and difficult to pursue:

No doubt, the parties are to be solely blamed for the same, however, even then the court cannot be oblivious to the plight pointed out by the parties. The pendency of the suits in different courts not only results in incurring of more cost, more time and efforts and even makes the conduct of several actions inconvenient while the proceedings of the similar nature, if brought before a single court having both territorial and pecuniary jurisdiction would be more convenient as it would save the parties from unnecessary delay and expenses and would also facilitate the court in understanding the precise controversy in issue.

Accordingly, taking into account all the facts and circumstances, the proceedings at Serial No. 1 to 4 will stand transferred and be adjudicated by the Additional District Judge (2), Shimla alone while the proceedings mentioned at Serial No. 5 to 11 shall stand transferred to the court of learned Civil Judge (Senior Division), Court No. 1, Shimla, who alone shall decide the cases. How and in what manner the cases shall be decided is left to the wisdom of the said court(s). The learned courts below are requested to decide these cases expeditiously and in no event later than 31st March 2015. It is further made clear that in case any of the court in unforeseen event is not in a position to hold its sitting for more than 30 days, it shall be open to the parties to approach the learned District Judge, Shimla, who shall be competent to assign the matter to any other court.

The parties are directed to appear before the respective court (s) aforesaid on 6.6.2014. The Registry is directed to send a copy of this order to the court(s) mentioned at Serial No. 1 to 11 (supra) so as to ensure that the records of the cases are transferred well before the date to the court(s) of learned Additional District Judge (2), Shimla and learned Civil Judge (Senior Division), respectively.