M. SHAILAJA Vs. Y. MANOJ

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Captioned petition is filed by the defendant feeling aggrieved by the order passed by the learned Judge on an application filed under Sec. 151 of CPC seeking permission to file a counterclaim. Learned Judge has rejected the application on the ground that the counterclaim is barred by limitation.

(2.) Facts leading to the case are as under:

(3.) The counterclaim is set up before settlement of issues. Therefore, I am of the view that the law laid down by the Hon'ble Apex Court in the case of Mahesh Govindji Trivedi vs. Bakul Maganlal Vyas and others,2022 LiveLaw (SC) 836. is squarely applicable to the present case on hand. By non-suiting the defendant on the ground of limitation may lead to miscarriage of justice. When valuable rights in immovable properties are involved, the Court should be cautious in exercising the power conferred on the Court under Sec. 3 of the Limitation Act. Therefore, I am of the view that the order under challenge warrants interference. If petitioner- defendant is denied an opportunity to set up a counterclaim, I am more than satisfied that it may cause serious prejudice to the rights of the defendants. Therefore, to meet the ends of justice, keeping open the question of limitation, I pass the following: