FOOLCHAND Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS petition seeks to revise the order of the Second Assistant Judge of the City Civil Court, Madras in O. S. Wo. 426 of 1957, directing the petitioner who was the plaintiff in the suit to elect as to against which of the two sets of defendants he would prefer to continue the suit.

(2.) THE petitioner despatched certain goods to Howrah through the railway. Respondents 1 to 3 represent the three zones of the railway through which the goods had to travel. The 4th respondent is an insurance company with whom evidently the petitioner had entered into a contract of insurance. The petitioner claimed that the goods which he sent to Howrah were tampered with during the course of transit, and alleging misconduct on the part of the railway servants sued to recover damages. The 4th respondent, the insurer, was also made a party to the suit and a decree was sought against the insurer as well. There was however no complaint on the part of the latter that the precise nature of the cause of action against it had not been disclosed. Mr. Vedamanickam, who appears for the insurance company, made it clear before me that it was never the case of the insurer that there had been any misjoinder of causes of action or that the suit should be dismissed on that account. Such a plea however appears to have been taken by defendants 1 to 3. Issue 1 is:

(3.) IN Sarajul Huq v. Abdul Rahman, I.L.R. Cal. 257, a purchaser of property filed a suit to recover possession thereof against a third party. To that suit he impleaded his vendor and made an alternative claim against him for refund of purchase money in case it were to be found that the third party was the owner and the vendor had no title to convey. The Calcutta High Court held that such joinder of causes of action was proper or at any rate desirable. That decision was given under Sec -tion 28 of the C. P. C. of 1882. Order 1 Rule 3 of the Civil Procedure Code, 1908, which took its place is even wider in that the joinder could be in respect of the same act or transaction and not necessarily within the term 'matter'.