CPC | Commission For Local Investigation Can’t Be Set Up To Ascertain Issues Irrelevant To Dispute: Kerala High Court

[09 June 2022] The Kerala High Court ruled that a commission for local inspection can only be set up by a court to ascertain matters which are necessary to elucidate the issues involved in the dispute and not on a mere asking by one of the litigating parties.
Justice A. Badharudeen added that the appointment of a commission to ascertain issues irrelevant to the dispute is an abuse of the process of court with intent to protract the matter and that such practices should be well curtailed. “Order 14 Rule 2 of the Code of Civil Procedure mandates that court to pronounce judgment on all issues. Corollary proposition is that the Court need not decide or pronounce judgment on matters which are not issues of fact or issues of law. Thus the legal position is emphatically clear on the point that a commission for local inspection to be issued only to ascertain matters which are necessary to elucidate the matter in dispute and such commission cannot be appointed on a mere asking by one of the litigating parties.”