Supreme Court: Defendant must file pleadings of previous suit to prove the identity of the cause of action in the two suits so as to bar second suit as per O 2 R 2 of CPC

In order that a plea of a Bar Under Order 2 Rule 2(3) of the Code of Civil Procedure should succeed the Defendant who raises the plea must make out; (i) that the second suit was in respect of the same cause of action as that on which the previous suit was based; (2) that in respect of that cause of action the Plaintiff was entitled to more than one relief; (3) that being thus entitled to more than one relief the Plaintiff, without leave obtained from the Court omitted to sue for the relief for which the second suit had been filed. From this analysis it would be seen that the Defendant would have to establish primarily and to start with, the precise cause of action upon which the previous suit was filed, for unless there is identity between the cause of action on which the earlier suit was filed and that on which the claim in the latter suit is based there would be no scope for the application of the bar. No doubt, a relief which is sought in a plaint could ordinarily be traceable to a particular cause of action but this might, by no means, be the universal rule. As the plea is a technical bar it has to be established satisfactorily and cannot be presumed merely on basis of inferential reasoning. It is for this reason that we consider that a plea of a bar Under Order 2 Rule 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure can be established only if the Defendant files in evidence the pleadings in the previous suit and thereby proves to the Court the identity of the cause of action in the two suits. It is common ground that the pleadings in CS 28 of 1950 were not filed by the Appellant in the present suit as evidence in support of his plea Under Order 2 Rule 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure. The learned Trial Judge, however, without these pleadings being on the record inferred what the cause of action should have been from the reference to the previous suit contained in the plaint as a matter of deduction. At the stage of the appeal the learned District Judge noticed this lacuna in the Appellant's case and pointed out, in our opinion, rightly that without the plaint in the previous suit being on the record, a plea of a bar Under Order 2 Rule 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure was not maintainable.

 {Para 6}

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA

Civil Appeal Nos. 372-373 of 2025.

Decided On: 15.01.2025

Cuddalore Powergen Corporation Ltd. Vs. Chemplast Cuddalore Vinyls Limited and Ors.

Hon'ble Judges/Coram:

J.B. Pardiwala and R. Mahadevan, JJ.

Author: J.B. Pardiwala, J.

Citation: 2025 INSC 73,MANU/SC/0071/2025.

Read full Judgment here: Click here.

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