The Hindu : Front Page : Illiterates must not be victimised owing to improper legal advice, says Bench

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Sunday, Jul 15, 2007
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Illiterates must not be victimised owing to improper legal advice, says Bench

Mohamed Imranullah S.

MADURAI: Courts cannot expect ignorant, illiterate and poverty-stricken people to know legal provisions. Hence their pleas need not be rejected by giving precedence to technical rules of procedure over substantial and complete justice, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has ruled.

Justice S. Nagamuthu said, “It is not as if the legal maxim Ignoratia Juris Non Excusat (Ignorance of law is no excuse) has lost its significance. But, at the same time, one cannot shut his eyes from the ground realities in ou r country.”

The ruling was passed on a civil revision petition to set aside an order passed by the Thirumayam District Munsif who had permitted six legal representatives of a person who died pending adjudication of a civil suit filed by him, to carry forward the case.

The petitioner claimed that the lower court order was ex-facie illegal because the legal representatives did not file an application to include them as parties within 90 days as required. The suit got automatically abated as the application was not filed in time.

The only course open to them was to file a petition under Order XXII Rule 9 of the Civil Procedure Code to set aside the abatement. Even that petition should have been filed within 60 days, failing which they ought to have filed a sub-application to condone the delay in approaching the Munsif.

But the legal representatives did not follow any of these procedures and obtained the relief straight away through an interlocutory application. Mr. Justice Nagamuthu agreed that procedures were not followed and the Munsif too had committed an error. Nevertheless, he said: “These poor litigants always act on the advice of the legal fraternity. When the respondents (legal representatives) approached the learned counsel, he should have properly apprised them of the legal provisions and advised them to file appropriate applications for setting aside the abatement.”

Stating that the legal representatives could not be victimised owing to improper advice by their counsel, the Judge remitted the matter back to the Munsif for fresh consideration. The Munsif was directed to deal with the applications in accordance with the dictum laid down by the Supreme Court while dealing with such matters.

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