JAI JAI RAM MANOHAR LAL Vs. NATIONAL BUILDING MATERIAL SUPPLY GURGAON

JUDGEMENT

(1.) On March 11, 1950, Manohar Lal s/o Jai Jai Ram commenced an action in the Court of the Subordinate Judge, Nainital, for a decree for Rs. 10,139/12 being the value of timber supplied to the defendant - the National Building Material Supply, Gurgaon. The action was instituted in the name of ''Jai Jai Ram Manohar Lal" which was the name in which the business was carried on. The plaintiff Manohar Lal subscribed his signature at the foot of the plaint as "Jai Jai Ram Manohar Lal, by the pen of Manohar Lal", and the plaint was also similarly verified. The defendant by its written statement contended that the plaintiff was an unregistered firm and on that account incompetent to sue.

(2.) On July 18, 1952, the plaintiff applied for leave to amend the plaint. Monohar Lal stated that "the business name of the plaintiff is Jai Jai Ram Manohar Lal and therein Manohar Lal the owner and proprietor is clearly shown and named. It is a joint Hindu family business and the defendant and all knew it that Manohar Lal whose name is there along with the father's name is the proprietor of it. The name is not an assumed or fictitious one". The plaintiff on those averments applied for leave to describe himself in the cause title as "Manohar Lal proprietor of Jai Jai Ram Manohar Lal" and in paragraph 1 to state that he carried on the business in timber in the name of Jai Jai Ram Manohar Lal. Apparently no reply was filed to this application by the defendant. The Subordinate Judge granted leave to amend the plaint. He observed that there was no doubt that the real plaintiff was Manohar Lal himself, that it was Manohar Lal who intended to file and did in fact file the action, and that the "amendment was intended to bring what in effect had been done in conformity with what in fact should have been done."

(3.) The defendant then filed a supplementary written statement raising two additional contentions - (1) that Manohar Lal was not the sole owner of the business and that his other brothers were also the owners of the business, and (2) that in any event the amendment became effective from July 18, 1952, and on that account the suit was barred by the law of limitation.