Dakshayini
v.
Madhavan
(High Court Of Kerala)
Civil Revision Petition No. 1209 Of 1979 | 01-09-1981
2. The function of the courts is to apply the law as it stands. May be the court notices the anomalies. But it is not for the court to re-write the law even though the court considers the provisions as they stand to be unreasonable. Of course courts do resort to the device of reading words into the provisions of the statute purporting to bring it in accord with what is evidently the intention of the legislature. But where it is evident that there is an omission on the part of the legislature to make an amendment which it ought to have made, even if such omission appears to be inadvertent, the courts cannot supply the omission, for, then it would be arrogating to itself legislative functions which it does not possess. The instance before us is one such where it is not possible to read the provision differently, for, the provision in 0.21 R.92(2) was one in existence all along and there can be no doubt that when the legislature enacted that rule it was contemplated as a rule providing for a period of 30 days. There can also be no doubt when the legislature in Act 104 of 1976 amended Art 127 of the Limitation Act that was intended to change the period of limitation for filing an application under 0.21 R.89, 90 or 91 from 30 days to 60 days. If this be the context we cannot read the period of 30 days as 60 days on any approach. We can only point out the anomaly and say that the law works inequitably perhaps because of the omission of the legislature to notice the need to amend the provision in 0.21 R.92(2). We can only call the attention of the Government to the need for moving immediately for amending the rule. Consequently while we dismiss this revision we alert the Central Government to the need of treating O.21 R.92(2) by enlarging the period for deposit from 30 days to 60 days to bring it in accord with R.127 of the Limitation Act. A copy of this order will be sent to the Law Department of the Central Government besides furnishing a copy to the Central Government Pleader for onward transmission.
The Civil Revision Petition is dismissed. No costs.
Advocates List
P. Kochupappu Achan; For Petitioners M.A.T. Pai; M.C. Gopi; M. Sreedharan; Government Pleader; Central Government Pleader; For Respondents
For Petitioner
- Shekhar Naphade
- Mahesh Agrawal
- Tarun Dua
For Respondent
- S. Vani
- B. Sunita Rao
- Sushil Kumar Pathak
Bench List
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE P. SUBRAMONIAN POTI
HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE K. BHASKARAN
Eq Citation
AIR 1982 KER 126
ILR 1982 (1) KERALA 319
LQ/KerHC/1981/260
HeadNote
A. Civil Procedure Code, 1908 — Or.21 R.92(2) — Setting aside sale — Deposit contemplated under Or.21 R.92(2) to be made within 30 days of date of sale — Application for setting aside sale to be made within 60 days of date of sale — Limitation period for setting aside sale under Art.127 of Limitation Act, 1963 enlarged from 30 days to 60 days by Civil Procedure Code (Amendment) Act, 1976 — Held, evidently period of 30 days contemplated under Or.21 R.92(2) was period corresponding to 30 days under Art.127 of Limitation Act as it stood earlier — That meant that deposit as well as application had to be made within 30 days — But though corresponding treatment was required to Or.21 R.92(2), that was evidently lost sight of — Consequently, if rule read as it stands, deposit has to be made within 30 days and application has to be made within 60 days — In instant case, deposit and application made within 60 days, but deposit not made within 30 days — Hence, application rightly dismissed by court below — B. Limitation Act, 1963, Art.127 (Paras 1 and 2)