M K NAVANEETHAM NAIDU Vs. GANGIAH NAIDU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The point that arises in this revision petition is whether the order of the District Munsif of Tindivanam allowing a petition to implead the first respondent as plaintiff is correct. The facts are these: The plaintiff in O.S. No. 162 of 1959 on the file of the District Munsif of Tindivanam died and his two widows (respondents 2 and 3 in this petition) were brought on record. The suit was for recovery of possession of certain properties on the basis of title created by a document of sale in favour of the second plaintiff. The first respondent filed a petition under Order XXII Rule 3 C.P.C. seeking to come on record as the legal representative of the deceased plaintiff and to continue the suit. His case was that the property in dispute belongs to him and that the deceased plaintiff was his benamidar, the document of sale having been executed in his favour only to enable the recovery of the property, the first respondent claiming that as be was residing elsewhere, he was not in a position to institute and continue the action. The first respondent also alleged that on finding that the widows, the legal representatives of the deceased plaintiff, were acting adversely to his interest, he found it necessary to come on record by himself and to prosecute the suit.

(2.) Though, the learned District Munsif rightly held that neither Order XXII, Rule 3 C.P.C. not Or. I Rule 10 C.P.C. would apply to the facts of the case yet, under the circumstances, the principles underlying these provisions should be liberally construed. He thought that the apprehension of the first respondent that the widows of the deceased plaintiff were colluding with the defendant in the suit was not ill-founded and in order to Protect the interests of the first respondent, the person claiming to be the real owner of the property, it was not proper to allow the widows to continue to prosecute the suit as plaintiffs. He accordingly directed the first respondent to be brought on record as the second plaintiff and the legal representatives of the deceased plaintiff to be transposed as defendants in the suit.

(3.) The defendant in the suit questions the correctness of this order.