K. Valarmathi & Ors. v. Kumaresan

Can the High Court in exercise of its supervisory jurisdiction under Article 227 reject a plaint. Headnotes† Constitution of India – Art.227 – Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 – Supervisory jurisdiction – Rejection of plaint by the High Court u/Art.227 of the Constitution – Correctness: Held: Essence of the power under Article 227 being supervisory, it cannot be invoked to usurp the original jurisdiction of the court which it seeks to supervise – Nor can it be invoked to supplant a statutory legal remedy under the Civil Procedure Code, 1908 – Civil Procedure Code is a self-contained Code and Order VII Rule 11 therein enumerates the circumstances in which the trial court may reject a plaint – Such rejection amounts to a deemed decree which is appealable before the High Court u/s.96 of the Code – This statutory scheme cannot be upended by invoking supervisory jurisdiction of the High Court under Article 227 to entertain a prayer for rejection of plaint – In the instant case, High Court has supervened the provisions of the Code when it rejected the plaint on the ground it was barred by law – In doing so, the High Court not only substituted itself as the court of first instance but also rendered nugatory a valuable right to appeal available to the appellant had the issue been adjudicated by the trial court in the first place – Procedural law provides the necessary legal infrastructure on which edifice of rule of law is built – Short-circuiting of procedure to reach hasty outcomes is an undesirable propensity of an overburdened judiciary – Thus, the impugned judgment passed by the High Court set aside. [Paras 9-11, 14, 16] * Author 2462 [2025] 4 S.C.R. Case Law Cited Jacky v. Tiny @ Antony & Ors. [2014] 5 SCR 85 : (2014) 6 SCC 508 – relied on.