1. STRIKING OUT PLEADINGS:
The Court may,
at any stage of the proceedings, order to be struck out, or amended, any matter
in any pleading which may be unnecessary, or scandalous, or which may tend to
prejudice, embarrass, or delay the fair trial of the suit.
The parties
can ask for, and the Court must order, striking out unnecessary, scandalous,
prejudicial, or embarrassing matters from the pleadings. This rule deals with
amendments that a party desires to be made in his opponent’s pleading.
Every Court has the power to strike out the scandalous matter in any record or proceeding. Scandalous matters are calculated to do permanent injury to the person affected. The Court, in aid of the public morals, is bound to interfere to suppress such indecencies which may stain the reputation and wound the feelings of the parties and their relatives and friends. Thus where an application for bail to the High Court contained defamatory allegations against the trying Magistrate which were all irrelevant the High Court refused to allow the application to be filled. If, however, allegations of dishonesty, etc., are relevant to the fact in issue they will not be struck off. An allegation will not be struck out merely because it is unnecessary unless it is scandalous or tends to prejudice, embarrass or delay the fair trial. A pleading is embarrassing if it is so drawn that it is not clear what causes the opposite party to meet at the trial.
- Must Read: plaint-definition-explanation.html
2. AMENDMENTS OF PLEADINGS:
The Court
may at any stage of the proceeding either party to alter or amend his pleading
in such manner and on such terms as may be just, and all such amendments shall
be made as may be necessary for the purpose of determining the real questions
in controversy between the parties.
Occasions for
amendment arise in the five ways:
(1)
Amendment
of clerical and arithmetical mistakes in judgments, decrees, and orders.
(2)
Amendment
by the Court for the purpose of determining the real question or issues between
the parties.
(3)
Striking
out or addition of parties.
(4)
Amendment
of opponent’s pleading.
(5)
Amendment
of one’s own pleading.
An amendment that changes
the entire nature of the case cannot be allowed, nor can one put forth a
new relief or changing the cause of action or taking away a legal right accruing
to a party by lapse of time be allowed, but correction can be allowed to a bona
fide clerical error such as where the name of the father of the opposite party
is incorrectly given in the plaint.
Amendment for correcting
misdescription of parties where it does not bring in new parties is permissible
where fraud was not specifically pleaded in the plaint but it was found to have
been ducted after filing of the plaint, the plea that the suit had become infructuous
due to lapse of time was held to be without merit and the plaintiff was allowed
to amend the plaint accordingly. Where the Pronote was found inadmissible and
the plaintiff sought an amendment to base his claim on original consideration, the amendment was allowed and the cause of action or character of the suit was held
not to have been changed thereby.