Civil Law and Procedure (CPC, 1908 and allied statutes)
What the paper tests
Civil procedure in the HJS is tested through situations, not definitions: a stage of a suit is described and you must state the correct order and its legal basis. Amendment of pleadings, rejection of plaint, temporary injunction and the scope of appeal recur every year.
Core rules
- Section 9 CPC: a civil court has jurisdiction unless barred expressly or by necessary implication; exclusion is not readily inferred (Dhulabhai v. State of M.P.).
- Order VII Rule 11: the plaint is rejected for no cause of action, undervaluation, insufficient stamp, or a suit barred by law - decided on the plaint and documents, not on defence evidence (Saleem Bhai v. State of Maharashtra).
- Order VI Rule 17: after trial has commenced, an amendment needs due diligence; the proviso is not a formality.
- Order II Rule 2 bars a claim omitted from an earlier suit; section 11 bars matters actually and substantially in issue.
- Order XXXIX Rules 1–2: prima facie case, balance of convenience, irreparable injury; the court also asks whether refusal causes irremediable harm and may impose terms.
- Section 100: a second appeal lies only on a substantial question of law, which must be formulated at admission.
Worked example
A plaint recites a promissory note of 2009 and is filed in 2016. Whether rejection under Order VII Rule 11(d) follows depends on whether the bar is apparent from the plaint itself: limitation is ordinarily a mixed question of fact and law and cannot be decided by taking evidence at the threshold (N.V. Srinivasa Murthy v. Mariyamma). If the plaint pleads part-payment (section 19, Limitation Act), no rejection.
Traps
- Treating a Rule 11 hearing as a mini-trial.
- Forgetting section 80 notice and section 89 reference to ADR.
- Deciding an unpleaded issue or granting relief beyond the plaint.