Telangana High Court slams ‘clever drafting,’ orders rejection of ‘stale’ civil suit

In an order dated September 17, Justice Laxmi Narayana Alishetty, while setting aside an order of the Principal Senior Civil Judge, Ibrahimpatnam, stated, “Mere clever drafting of the plaint creating an illusion of cause of action, which in fact does not exist, does not revive the stale claim of the plaintiffs.”

The core dispute revolved around an interlocutory application filed by the petitioners (defendants in the original suit) seeking to have the original civil suit dismissed, on the ground that it was legally untenable. The lower court, the Principal Senior Civil Judge, had previously dismissed this application, allowing the suit to proceed.

The petitioner, 22nd Century Infrastructures and Projects Pvt Ltd., had sought the high court to overturn the lower court’s order and dismiss the entire civil suit against them on the grounds that it was legally flawed because it was time-barred (barred by limitation) and lacked a genuine cause of action.

Stating that the trial court failed to properly appreciate the facts of the case and committed error in holding that the plaintiffs have shown the cause of action to bring the suit within the limitation, the judge observed that “the plaint does not disclose cause of action and therefore, the sham and bogus litigation shall not be allowed to continue and an end shall be put to it”.

The revision petition was allowed, the lower court’s order dated November 23, 2022, was set aside, and the interlocutory application petition seeking the rejection of the plaint was consequently allowed. The plaintiffs, Mohd Ismail Khan and four others, were ruled not to be entitled to seek the reliefs requested in the suit, and the matter stands closed.

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