MAHESH GOVINDJI TRIVEDI Vs. BAKUL MAGANLAL VYAS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Leave granted.

(2.) This appeal by the defendant in a pending suit for specific performance (Suit No. 1821 of 2004) is directed against the judgment and order dtd. 30/11/2021, as passed by the Division Bench of the High Court of Judicature at Bombay in Appeal No. 10 of 2020 arising from an order dtd. 2/5/2019 in Notice of Motion (L) No. 1014 of 2019 in the said suit.

(3.) In this appeal, the main plank of submissions on behalf of the defendant-appellant is that in view of the order dtd. 26/2/2021 as passed by this Court in relation to the incidental proceedings pertaining to the same suit, the proceedings in question need to progress with the counter-claim on record; and, in any case, there was no justification for the Division Bench interfering with the considered order of the Single Judge taking the counter-claim on record. On the other hand, it is submitted on behalf of the plaintiffs-respondents that the Division Bench of the High Court has rightly interfered because the order dtd. 2/5/2019 was passed by the Single Judge without giving opportunity to the plaintiffs-respondents to contest the notice of motion; and in the true operation of the applicable rules of procedure, the counter-claim in question, which was filed nearly 13 years after filing of the written statement, could not have been taken on record, particularly when there had not been a semblance of reason for such a gross and inordinate delay.