Applications for correction of typographical or other errors in the judgment/order

You win a suit over a flat in Vashi and collect the decree, only to find that the decree describes flat 402 as flat 204. A typing slip has turned a winning decree into something the Sub-Registrar may refuse to act on. Nobody wants a fresh appeal or a long review for a wrong digit. The law has a quick tool for exactly this kind of mistake, and it also has a hard boundary: the court may fix a slip, but it may not use the excuse to change its mind. What does the application say, and where is that boundary?

In two minutes

A court may correct clerical or arithmetical mistakes and errors from an accidental slip or omission in a judgment, decree or order at any time, on its own motion or on a party's application (CPC s.152; in criminal cases BNSS s.403), but it cannot use the power to alter the substance of what it decided.

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