The Code of Civil Procedure, 1908

What it does

The Code is the procedure of the civil courts. Its body sets out the general rules: which court may try a suit, how a suit is begun, how the other side is summoned, how pleadings are exchanged, how evidence is taken, and how a decree is passed and appealed. Its First Schedule contains the Orders and Rules, which carry most of the working detail, such as the rejection of a plaint, temporary injunctions, summary suits and the execution of decrees.

The body of the Code states principles that recur in every contested suit. A civil court may try all suits of a civil nature unless a law bars it. A later suit on the same matter in issue between the same parties may be stayed while an earlier one is pending. A matter that has been finally decided between the parties cannot be reopened, which is res judicata. A suit is instituted in the court within whose limits the defendant resides or the cause of action arose, and special rules apply to suits about immovable property.

Who it binds

The civil courts and the parties before them. It applies to a suit, an appeal, a revision and an execution application in the ordinary civil courts, and its principles are applied by analogy in many other forums that are not bound by it in terms. A tribunal or a special court that has its own procedure may follow the Code only where its statute says so. The State and its officers are parties like any other, with the addition of a requirement for notice before certain suits against the government.

What has changed, and when

• The Code has been amended repeatedly, most significantly by the Amendment Acts of 1976, 1999 and 2002, which changed the procedure on pleadings, appeals, revision and the time to file a written statement.
• The Commercial Courts Act, 2015 amends the Code as it applies to commercial disputes of the specified value, with a stricter timetable and consequences for delay. In a commercial dispute the Code operates as modified by that Act, and the two must be read together.
• Several States have made local amendments, so a lawyer working in more than one High Court's jurisdiction has to check whether the text applying in that State has been varied.

What turns on it in practice

Most contests under the Code are about whether the suit should be in court at all. Rejection of the plaint where it discloses no cause of action or is barred by law, an objection to territorial or pecuniary jurisdiction, the effect of an earlier decree, and the stay of a suit while another is pending are the usual preliminary questions, and each can decide a case before evidence is led. For a shareholder dispute or a commercial suit, the choice of court and the framing of the plaint decide whether the claim survives that stage.

Interim relief is the second recurring question. An application for a temporary injunction, an attachment before judgment or the appointment of a receiver is decided under the Orders, usually on the first hearing, and the order made then often shapes the rest of the dispute. Appeals follow the structure of the Code: a first appeal on facts and law, a second appeal only on a substantial question of law, and revision in limited cases.

For a person who lives outside India, the Code decides how a summons is served abroad, how a witness is examined by commission, how a foreign judgment is treated, and how a decree of a court in a reciprocating territory is executed here. These provisions are the ones that come up in the civil work this practice does for non-resident clients, alongside its representation in commercial suits and civil litigation before trial, commercial and appellate courts.