A second appeal rendered infructuous by subsequent adjudication must be dismissed without examining merits.

The appellant-plaintiff filed the present second appeal against the judgment and decree dated 04.02.2017 passed by the Additional District Judge, Gariyaband, in Civil Appeal No. 23-A/2010.

The appeal was pending at the stage of admission when the appellant relied upon a subsequent judgment dated 13.12.2024 in S.A. No. 358 of 2002, Prem Lal v. Smt. Kirmain Bai & Another, by which the title of respondent No. 1 in respect of the suit property had been affirmed.

The appellant submitted that, in view of that subsequent adjudication, the controversy in the present appeal no longer survived and no effective relief could be granted. The respondents did not dispute this position.

Whether the subsequent judicial determination affirming respondent No. 1’s title rendered the present second appeal infructuous.

Whether, in view of the subsequent adjudication, the High Court was required to examine the grounds raised in the second appeal on merits.

The Court applied the procedural principle that a proceeding may be dismissed as infructuous where a subsequent judicial determination has extinguished the controversy or leaves no effective or executable relief available to the appellant.

Once the subject matter of an appeal no longer survives, the court need not adjudicate the merits of the appeal, particularly where such examination would serve no useful purpose.

The Court noted that the subsequent judgment in S.A. No. 358 of 2002 had affirmed respondent No. 1’s title concerning the suit property.

Since that determination had removed the controversy forming the subject matter of the present second appeal, and the respondents accepted the appellant’s submission, no effective or executable relief remained available to the appellant.

Applying the principle that a court need not decide a matter that has become infructuous, the Court declined to examine the grounds raised in the memorandum of second appeal or enter into the merits of the dispute.

The appeal was accordingly dismissed as infructuous, without any opinion on the merits of the grounds raised. All pending interlocutory applications, if any, were disposed of, and there was no order as to costs.