A person or Firm/company or any other legal entity has a right to recover his money from another other person or legal entity by filing a money recovery suit in competent Court of law. For Delhi, if the amount recoverable is upto to Rs. 3 lakh, then the suit lies in the court of Civil Judge; if the amount recoverable is from Rs. 3 lakh to 2 crore and in some cases 1 crore, then then the suit lies to the Court of District Judge and if the amount if above the last said amount, then the suit would lie to Delhi High Court. In a city like New Delhi, it’s not surprising to see a lot of defaults being made by the parties in personal as well as business transactions apart from contractual breach giving right to party not in fault to claim recovery of due money or damages in terms of money.
Your legal journey begins by filing a money recovery suit or suit for damages before a Competent Court which has the territorial and pecuniary ‘jurisdiction’ to entertain your claim.
Every District Court has a limited geographical area over which it has jurisdiction, so depending upon the facts and circumstances of your case, your Civil Suit would be filed before a Court which has the territorial jurisdiction. Say, if your cause of action arose in Saket, Malviya Nagar, Green Park, Lajpat Nagar or any area in South Delhi, then ‘Saket District Courts’ would be the Court which will have the territorial jurisdiction unless your case falls in Delhi High Courts pecuniary jurisdiction. The District Courts exercise jurisdiction only within their respective districts whereas a High Court can exercise jurisdiction over the territory of a particular state.
Basically a Plaint, amongst other things, contains the relevant facts of the case necessitating the filing of the Civil Suit, the claim of the Plaintiff, averments pertaining to the cause of action, and finally his prayer before the Court for grant of his claim. A ’cause of action’ literally means the cause or the set of circumstances which leads up to a Suit. A cause of action arises when a legal right is infringed.
Now the strength of a case is largely dependent upon how strong the drafting is, how the facts of the case and the claim sought has been presented in the Plaint. A poorly drafted Plaint, missing relevant facts, how and when the cause of action arose and the specific claim of the Plaintiff, has the potential to get dismissed at the admission stage itself.
It is also important that every person required for the adjudication of the Civil Suit, be made a ‘party’, either as a Plaintiff or a Defendant, as the case may be. A ‘necessary party’ is one whose presence is essential and in whose absence, no effective decree or order can be passed or made. A ‘proper party’ is one without whom a decree or order can be passed or made, but whose presence is necessary for an effectual and complete adjudication of the Suit.
Another important aspect to be kept in mind, specially by the person who wishes to institute a Civil Suit for money recovery or damages is that he has to keep in mind that the law provides for only a limited time frame in which a Suit can be instituted for a particular claim. That ‘time limit’, is known as the ‘Limitation Period’ and it is different for different kinds of cases and claims.
A Suit cannot be instituted in any Court subsequent to the expiry of the limitation period. I often see a lot of Suits being dismissed at the very threshold only because they were filed after the expiry of the Limitation Period, specially when the Plaintiff is not even able to properly explain as to what prevented him from filing the Suit within the Limitation Period. So if one wishes to move the Court for enforcement of his legal rights, he should keep the aspect of Limitation Period in mind so as to keep the doors of the Court open for him.
This was only a very brief summary of certain aspects pertaining to institution of a Civil Suit for recovery of money or claiming damages. There are more aspects to this, which for obvious cannot be covered here.
