Srinagar HC Upholds Rs57.23 Lakh Decree Against J&K Govt After It Completed Required Defence Deposit In 2025

The respondents sued under Order XXXVII of the Code of Civil Procedure (CPC) to recover amounts allegedly due for electrical works at the MLA Hostel, Srinagar.

The trial court granted the appellants leave to defend, conditional on depositing Rs. 37.82 lakhs and filing a written statement within 30 days.

The appellants deposited Rs. 19.01 lakhs in March 2023 but did not deposit the balance within the stipulated period.

On 12 August 2023, the trial court decreed the suit for Rs. 57.23 lakhs, with interest and costs, for failure to satisfy the condition.

The balance of Rs. 18.81 lakhs was deposited in July 2025.

The appellants challenged the decree, arguing that the deposit and circumstances warranted an opportunity to defend.

Under Order XXXVII CPC, a court may grant leave to defend subject to conditions.

Where a defendant fails to fulfil a condition imposed for leave within the time allowed, the subsequent deposit of the required amount does not, without more, retrospectively cure that default or revive the right to defend.

The judgment cites no separate statutory provision or precedent beyond Order XXXVII CPC and the conditional-leave order.

The trial court had made deposit of Rs. 37.82 lakhs a condition of leave to defend.

The appellants deposited only Rs. 19.01 lakhs before the suit was decreed and paid the remaining Rs. 18.81 lakhs nearly two years later.

The High Court held that the later deposit could not retrospectively amount to compliance, and the appellants had provided no cogent explanation for missing the deadline.

Accordingly, the trial court committed no illegality in decreeing the suit after the condition remained unfulfilled.

The appeal was dismissed, and the trial court’s judgment and decree were upheld.