Statutory abatement ends a pending ejectment suit in law and bars later amendment to add parties or fresh relief.

Where an amending rent-control statute expressly abates pending proceedings based on the withdrawn exemption, a suit for ejectment instituted on that footing terminates in law from the operative date even if the plaint did not expressly recite the clause. The Court held that once statutory abatement took effect, there was no subsisting suit capable of amendment, so the plaint could not later be altered to add legal representatives or pursue a fresh cause of action arising thereafter. The decree founded on such post-abatement amendment and addition of parties was therefore unsustainable.

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Issues: Whether the suit for ejectment, pending when the amendment came into force, stood abated under section 3 of the amending Act and, if so, whether the plaint could thereafter be amended to proceed against the legal representatives.

Analysis: The amendment withdrew the earlier exemption for certain non-residential buildings and expressly provided that pending proceedings instituted on the footing of that exemption would abate. The Court construed section 3 in the light of the object of the amending Act, holding that a suit filed because the building was outside the rent control regime was a proceeding instituted on that ground even if the plaint did not recite the clause expressly. Once the statutory abatement operated, the suit ceased to be a live proceeding in law. After that date, there was no subsisting suit capable of amendment, and no new parties or fresh relief could validly be added on a different cause of action arising later.

Conclusion: The suit had abated on the date the amendment came into force, and the subsequent decree based on amendment of the pleadings and addition of parties was unsustainable. The appeal succeeded.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a statute expressly abates pending proceedings, the proceeding terminates in law from the operative date and cannot thereafter be revived or converted into a fresh suit by amendment of pleadings or addition of parties.

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