Question: One of my relatives had filed a civil suit a few months back. Certain defects were notified by the registry of the court. However, my relative’s lawyer forgot to remove those defects and now the court says that no further time can be granted for removing defects in the filing of the case and his plaint is likely to be dismissed due to this reason. What can be done in this situation?
Answer: You have not given the basic details in your question, as to how many days’ delay is there in removing the defects and in which court the civil suit was filed.
Any way, your relative can try filing an application under Section 148 of the Civil Procedure Code:
“148. Enlargement of time.— Where any period is fixed or granted by the Court for the doing of any act prescribed or allowed by this Code, the Court may, in its discretion, from time to time, enlarge such period not exceeding thirty days in total, even though the period originally fixed or granted may have expired.”
As can be seen from this, Section 148 of the CPC allows the court to enlarge the time period fixed for doing of any act under the CPC by a maximum period of 30 days. This is over and above the time fixed or time limit for that particular act under the CPC.
It is noteworthy that in the case of Gurmeet Singh Grewal v. J.P. Jethera, (2010) 15 SCC 549, keeping in view the provisions of Section 148 of CPC, the Supreme Court had granted one week’s time to the plaintiff in a case to remove defects, even though the defects were pending for about 14 months. In this case, the plaint had not been signed and verified for a long period. Of course, this case was decided by the Supreme Court on the basis of the peculiar facts of that case. However, at least, it gives an indication that in appropriate cases, further time can be granted for removal of defects in the filing of a civil suit.
So, your relative can file an application under Section 148 CPC requesting for enlargement of time granted for removal of defects in the civil suit filed by him.
