Concepts: Res-sub judice, Res judicata, set off, counterclaim

Two neighbours in a Thane housing society fight over the same parking slot. One files a suit in the City Civil Court; the other, annoyed, files his own suit on the same dispute in a different court a month later. Should both trials go ahead? And if the first suit ends with a judgment, can the loser simply start again next year? A third situation: the same neighbour who is sued for Rs 50,000 also has a Rs 20,000 claim against the plaintiff. Must he file a separate suit for it? Four ideas in the Code answer these questions, and they belong together because each stops the courts from being used twice for the same quarrel.

In two minutes

Section 10 stops a second suit on the same matter while the first is pending, section 11 stops a fresh suit once the matter has been finally decided, and Order VIII rules 6 and 6A let a defendant set up his own money claim in the same suit.

The rest of this chapter

The full explanation, the cheat sheet, every previous-year question at every mark weight, the quiz and the answer skeletons are part of Civil Procedure Code 1908 and Limitation Act 1963 on LexBlox Semester. Sign in to unlock the subject, or read Module 1 of Legal Language and Writing free.