Civil and Criminal Procedure and Court Practice
This domain asks how a case actually moves through court. You must know the sequence of a civil suit under the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, and the flow of a criminal case, together with the vocabulary of orders, sections, cognizance, bail and execution.
Core framework
- Civil: plaint (Order VII) → scrutiny and registration → summons to defendant → written statement (Order VIII) → framing of issues (Order XIV) → evidence → arguments → judgment and decree → execution.
- Rejection versus return of plaint: Order VII Rule 11 rejection (no cause of action, barred by law, insufficient court fee, etc.) is a decision on merits of the pleading; Order VII Rule 10 return is only for want of jurisdiction.
- Interim injunction: Order XXXIX Rules 1 and 2 requires a prima facie case, irreparable injury and the balance of convenience.
- Cognizable versus non-cognizable: police may investigate a cognizable case without a Magistrate's order; a non-cognizable case needs such an order.
- New criminal laws: from 1 July 2024 the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam replaced the IPC, CrPC and Evidence Act. The FIR provision earlier in section 154 CrPC is now section 173 of the BNSS.
Worked example
A plaint is filed in a court that has no territorial jurisdiction over the subject property. What is the correct order? Reasoning: the defect is jurisdictional, not a defect in the pleading itself, so Order VII Rule 11 is not the route. The plaint is returned under Order VII Rule 10 for presentation before the proper court, and the suit is not decided on merits.
Traps that cost marks
Treating rejection and return as the same; forgetting the three injunction tests; mixing the old and new criminal statute numbering; and confusing cognizance with conviction.