The Jharkhand High Court has held that under Section 152 of the Civil Procedure Code, clerical and arithmetical errors can be rectified in judgments and decrees.
Judge Subhash Chand Presiding over the case, he observed, “In view of Section 152 of the Code of Civil Procedure, the clerical and arithmetical error can also be corrected by the judgment and decree. The competent Court of First Instance has committed illegality by rejecting the petitioner-plaintiff’s application for amendment in respect of correction of the plot number and other particulars, which were sought to be corrected in view of the details of the property shown in the plaint.”
According to the factual matrix of the case, the partition suit had been filed by the plaintiff and the suit was also decreed in favor of the plaintiff.
During the final judgment proceedings, the plaintiff discovered that the judgment and the ruling incorrectly mentioned certain parcels, and that one of them was listed twice. The correct parcel number and area were indicated in the complaint, indicating a typographical error. The plaintiffs filed an amendment application with the civil court, which was rejected, giving rise to the present petition for relief.
The defendant argued that the amendment was requested late during the final decree proceedings and should not be permitted.
However, the court found that the proposed amendment constituted a correction of a typographical error pointed out by the plaintiff.
Accordingly, the Jharkhand High Court partially accepted the impugned order passed by the trial court and directed it to permit the petitioners to insert the proposed amendment in the judgment and decree within two weeks from the date of production of a copy of the High Court order by any of the parties.
Case title: Khageshwar Rana V. Smt. Sundri Devi
LL Quote: 2024 Live Act (JHA) 125
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